TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain Morphology and Schizophrenia
T2 - A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Limbic, Prefrontal Cortex, and Caudate Structures
AU - Breier, Alan
AU - Buchanan, Robert W.
AU - Elkashef, Ahmed
AU - Munson, Robert C.
AU - Kirkpatrick, Brian
AU - Gellad, Fouad
PY - 1992/12
Y1 - 1992/12
N2 - We used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the morphologic characteristics of the amygdala/hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and caudate nucleus in 29 healthy volunteers matched for age, gender, and head of household socioeconomic status and 44 patients with chronic schizophrenia. Total volumes of these structures were determined from 3-mm contiguous coronal sections. Schizophrenic patients, compared with healthy controls, had significantly smaller right and left amygdala/hippocampal complex volumes, smaller right and left prefrontal volumes, and larger left caudate volumes. A secondary analysis revealed reductions in the right and left amygdala and the left hippocampus. In addition, prefrontal white matter, but not gray matter, was reduced in the schizophrenic patients. Moreover, the right white matter volume in schizophrenic patients was significantly related to right amygdala/hippocampal volume (r=.39), data that provide preliminary support for a hypothesis of abnormal limbic-cortical connection in schizophrenia. We studied the implications of these data for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
AB - We used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the morphologic characteristics of the amygdala/hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and caudate nucleus in 29 healthy volunteers matched for age, gender, and head of household socioeconomic status and 44 patients with chronic schizophrenia. Total volumes of these structures were determined from 3-mm contiguous coronal sections. Schizophrenic patients, compared with healthy controls, had significantly smaller right and left amygdala/hippocampal complex volumes, smaller right and left prefrontal volumes, and larger left caudate volumes. A secondary analysis revealed reductions in the right and left amygdala and the left hippocampus. In addition, prefrontal white matter, but not gray matter, was reduced in the schizophrenic patients. Moreover, the right white matter volume in schizophrenic patients was significantly related to right amygdala/hippocampal volume (r=.39), data that provide preliminary support for a hypothesis of abnormal limbic-cortical connection in schizophrenia. We studied the implications of these data for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
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U2 - 10.1001/archpsyc.1992.01820120009003
DO - 10.1001/archpsyc.1992.01820120009003
M3 - Article
C2 - 1449382
AN - SCOPUS:0026488594
SN - 0003-990X
VL - 49
SP - 921
EP - 926
JO - Archives of general psychiatry
JF - Archives of general psychiatry
IS - 12
ER -