White Matter Tract Lengths in Schizophrenia
Author Information
Author(s): Monte S. Buchsbaum, Peter Schoenknecht, Yuliya Torosjan, Randall Newmark, King-Wai Chu, Serge Mitelman, Adam M. Brickman, Lina Shihabuddin, M. Mehmet Haznedar, Erin A. Hazlett, Shabeer Ahmed, Cheuk Tang
Primary Institution: Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
Hypothesis
Schizophrenia is an illness arising from disconnection or misconnections of circuits connecting the prefrontal cortex with the thalamus and striatum.
Conclusion
Patients with schizophrenia have shorter white matter tract lengths from the anterior limb of the internal capsule to the prefrontal cortex compared to normal controls.
Supporting Evidence
- Patients with schizophrenia had significantly shorter tract paths from the internal capsule to prefrontal white matter.
- These results are consistent with previous findings of smaller size of the anterior limb of the internal capsule in schizophrenia.
- Diffusion tensor anisotropy decreases in frontal white matter in schizophrenia.
Takeaway
People with schizophrenia have shorter connections in their brains that help them think and make decisions.
Methodology
Diffusion tensor and structural MRI images were acquired on 103 patients with schizophrenia and 41 age-matched normal controls to trace tracts from the internal capsule to the prefrontal cortex.
Potential Biases
Potential biases may arise from the selection of patients and controls, as well as the subjective nature of some measurements.
Limitations
The study is limited by the resolution of diffusion tensor images and potential confounding factors such as head motion and MRI coregistration errors.
Participant Demographics
103 patients with schizophrenia (83 men, 20 women) and 41 normal controls (28 men, 13 women).
Statistical Information
P-Value
0.032
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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