Diffusion Tensor MRI Shows White Matter Changes in Schizophrenia

Individuals recently diagnosed with schizophrenia have abnormalities in a specific area of the brain's white matter. A new study suggests brain signals passing through the temporal lobe may become "crossed” and lead to some of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia.

The research, conducted by researchers from the Zucker Hillside Hospital (Glen Oaks, NY, USA) and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (Manhasset, NY, USA), was published in the April 2008 issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The brain consists of gray matter and white matter. The gray matter comprises neurons; the white matter contains the long axon projections that control messages sent throughout the brain and forms the connections among different gray matter regions. Without adequate insulation on these projections, similar to wiring in an electrical outlet, brain cells fail to communicate effectively. The resulting crosstalk may clarify why patients with schizophrenia have disturbances in emotion, social functioning, thinking, and perceiving information.

All study participants had a comparatively unique scanning technique called diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which enables the quantification of movement of water molecules along white matter pathways to evaluate brain white matter integrity. Abnormalities in the brain's white matter can be identified from the scans. Philip R. Szeszko, Ph.D., and his colleagues found these abnormalities when they looked at the images from the brains of people with schizophrenia. There is growing evidence that the mind-altering disorder may be established at birth and that an alteration in genes that regulate white matter development could play a role in the neurobiology of the disorder when it arises, typically in late adolescence or early adulthood.

White-matter abnormalities in schizophrenia have been identified by other investigators, but this is one of the first studies to identify abnormalities in patients early in the course of illness when symptoms first emerge and prior to extensive pharmacologic intervention. Moreover, Dr. Szeszko discovered that these temporal lobe white matter abnormalities were associated with more severe symptoms and neuropsychologic deficits, further supporting a role for this brain region in the neurobiology of the disorder.


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The Zucker Hillside Hospital