2 results
An overlapping pattern of cerebral cortical thinning is associated with both positive symptoms and aggression in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium
- Ting Yat Wong, Joaquim Radua, Edith Pomarol-Clotet, Raymond Salvador, Anton Albajes-Eizagirre, Aleix Solanes, Erick J. Canales-Rodriguez, Amalia Guerrero-Pedraza, Salvador Sarro, Tilo Kircher, Igor Nenadic, Axel Krug, Dominik Grotegerd, Udo Dannlowski, Stefan Borgwardt, Anita Riecher-Rössler, Andre Schmidt, Christina Andreou, Christian G. Huber, Jessica Turner, Vince Calhoun, Wenhao Jiang, Sarah Clark, Esther Walton, Gianfranco Spalletta, Nerisa Banaj, Fabrizio Piras, Valentina Ciullo, Daniela Vecchio, Irina Lebedeva, Alexander S. Tomyshev, Vasily Kaleda, Tatyana Klushnik, Geraldo Busatto Filho, Marcus Vinicius Zanetti, Mauricio Henriques Serpa, Pedro Gomes Penteado Rosa, Ryota Hashimoto, Masaki Fukunaga, Anja Richter, Bernd Krämer, Oliver Gruber, Aristotle N. Voineskos, Erin W. Dickie, David Tomecek, Antonin Skoch, Filip Spaniel, Cyril Hoschl, Alessandro Bertolino, Aurora Bonvino, Annabella Di Giorgio, Laurena Holleran, Simone Ciufolini, Tiago Reis Marques, Paola Dazzan, Robin Murray, Jelle Lamsma, Wiepke Cahn, Neeltje van Haren, Ana M. Díaz-Zuluaga, Julián A. Pineda-Zapata, Cristian Vargas, Carlos López-Jaramillo, Theo G. M. van Erp, Ruben C. Gur, Thomas Nickl-Jockschat
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 50 / Issue 12 / September 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 October 2019, pp. 2034-2045
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Background
Positive symptoms are a useful predictor of aggression in schizophrenia. Although a similar pattern of abnormal brain structures related to both positive symptoms and aggression has been reported, this observation has not yet been confirmed in a single sample.
MethodTo study the association between positive symptoms and aggression in schizophrenia on a neurobiological level, a prospective meta-analytic approach was employed to analyze harmonized structural neuroimaging data from 10 research centers worldwide. We analyzed brain MRI scans from 902 individuals with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia and 952 healthy controls.
ResultsThe result identified a widespread cortical thickness reduction in schizophrenia compared to their controls. Two separate meta-regression analyses revealed that a common pattern of reduced cortical gray matter thickness within the left lateral temporal lobe and right midcingulate cortex was significantly associated with both positive symptoms and aggression.
ConclusionThese findings suggested that positive symptoms such as formal thought disorder and auditory misperception, combined with cognitive impairments reflecting difficulties in deploying an adaptive control toward perceived threats, could escalate the likelihood of aggression in schizophrenia.
Prefrontal cortical thinning links to negative symptoms in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium
- E. Walton, D. P. Hibar, T. G. M. van Erp, S. G. Potkin, R. Roiz-Santiañez, B. Crespo-Facorro, P. Suarez-Pinilla, N. E. M. van Haren, S. M. C. de Zwarte, R. S. Kahn, W. Cahn, N. T. Doan, K. N. Jørgensen, T. P. Gurholt, I. Agartz, O. A. Andreassen, L. T. Westlye, I. Melle, A. O. Berg, L. Morch-Johnsen, A. Færden, L. Flyckt, H. Fatouros-Bergman, Karolinska Schizophrenia Project Consortium (KaSP), E. G. Jönsson, R. Hashimoto, H. Yamamori, M. Fukunaga, N. Jahanshad, P. De Rossi, F. Piras, N. Banaj, G. Spalletta, R. E. Gur, R. C. Gur, D. H. Wolf, T. D. Satterthwaite, L. M. Beard, I. E. Sommer, S. Koops, O. Gruber, A. Richter, B. Krämer, S. Kelly, G. Donohoe, C. McDonald, D. M. Cannon, A. Corvin, M. Gill, A. Di Giorgio, A. Bertolino, S. Lawrie, T. Nickson, H. C. Whalley, E. Neilson, V. D. Calhoun, P. M. Thompson, J. A. Turner, S. Ehrlich
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 48 / Issue 1 / January 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 May 2017, pp. 82-94
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Background
Our understanding of the complex relationship between schizophrenia symptomatology and etiological factors can be improved by studying brain-based correlates of schizophrenia. Research showed that impairments in value processing and executive functioning, which have been associated with prefrontal brain areas [particularly the medial orbitofrontal cortex (MOFC)], are linked to negative symptoms. Here we tested the hypothesis that MOFC thickness is associated with negative symptom severity.
MethodsThis study included 1985 individuals with schizophrenia from 17 research groups around the world contributing to the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group. Cortical thickness values were obtained from T1-weighted structural brain scans using FreeSurfer. A meta-analysis across sites was conducted over effect sizes from a model predicting cortical thickness by negative symptom score (harmonized Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms or Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores).
ResultsMeta-analytical results showed that left, but not right, MOFC thickness was significantly associated with negative symptom severity (βstd = −0.075; p = 0.019) after accounting for age, gender, and site. This effect remained significant (p = 0.036) in a model including overall illness severity. Covarying for duration of illness, age of onset, antipsychotic medication or handedness weakened the association of negative symptoms with left MOFC thickness. As part of a secondary analysis including 10 other prefrontal regions further associations in the left lateral orbitofrontal gyrus and pars opercularis emerged.
ConclusionsUsing an unusually large cohort and a meta-analytical approach, our findings point towards a link between prefrontal thinning and negative symptom severity in schizophrenia. This finding provides further insight into the relationship between structural brain abnormalities and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.