Publications by authors named "Diana Tordesillas-Gutierrez"
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia (SCZ) shows differences in brain structure and symptoms between men and women, suggesting distinct neurobiological factors linked to sex.
- The study analyzed MRI data from nearly 6,000 participants to explore the effects of sex and diagnosis on the shape of deep brain regions in individuals with SCZ compared to healthy controls.
- Results indicated that women with SCZ had more pronounced shape abnormalities than men, but there were no significant interactions between diagnosis and sex, highlighting the need for further exploration of sex-related differences in schizophrenia's neurobiology.
Article Synopsis
- Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various developmental and psychiatric disorders, and a study analyzed brain volumes in 74,898 individuals, identifying 254 genetic loci linked to these volumes, which accounted for up to 35% of variation.
- The research included exploring gene expression in specific neural cell types, focusing on genes involved in intracellular signaling and processes related to brain aging.
- The findings suggest that certain genetic variants not only influence brain volume but also have potential causal links to conditions like Parkinson’s disease and ADHD, highlighting the genetic basis for risks associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
Article Synopsis
- Subcortical brain structures play a crucial role in various disorders, and a study analyzed the genetic basis of brain volumes in nearly 75,000 individuals of European ancestry, revealing 254 loci linked to these volumes.
- The research identified significant gene expression in neural cells, relating to brain aging and signaling, and found that polygenic scores could predict brain volumes across different ancestries.
- The study highlights genetic connections between brain volumes and conditions like Parkinson's disease and ADHD, suggesting specific gene expression patterns could be involved in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia is characterized by significant changes in brain structure, but it's not clear if these changes relate to the brain's network organization.
- Researchers analyzed MRI scans from nearly 2,500 people with schizophrenia alongside healthy controls to see how structural changes connect to brain networks.
- The study found that certain regions in the brain that are crucial for connectivity are more affected in schizophrenia, indicating a link between brain network vulnerability and the disease's impact, with some similarities to bipolar disorder but not major depressive disorder.
Introduction: Regional gray matter (GM) alterations have been reported in early-onset psychosis (EOP, onset before age 18), but previous studies have yielded conflicting results, likely due to small sample sizes and the different brain regions examined. In this study, we conducted a whole brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis in a large sample of individuals with EOP, using the newly developed ENIGMA-VBM tool.
Methods: 15 independent cohorts from the ENIGMA-EOP working group participated in the study.
We present an empirically benchmarked framework for sex-specific normative modeling of brain morphometry that can inform about the biological and behavioral significance of deviations from typical age-related neuroanatomical changes and support future study designs. This framework was developed using regional morphometric data from 37,407 healthy individuals (53% female; aged 3-90 years) following a comparative evaluation of eight algorithms and multiple covariate combinations pertaining to image acquisition and quality, parcellation software versions, global neuroimaging measures, and longitudinal stability. The Multivariate Factorial Polynomial Regression (MFPR) emerged as the preferred algorithm optimized using nonlinear polynomials for age and linear effects of global measures as covariates.
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- Carriers of specific genetic variants (1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2) show both regional and global brain structure differences compared to noncarriers, but analyzing these differences can be complicated.
- The study used MRI data from various groups (carriers and noncarriers) to assess how regional brain characteristics diverge from overall brain structure differences.
- Findings revealed that certain brain regions in carriers exhibited distinct patterns of cortical surface area and thickness that deviated from the global average, suggesting more complex effects of these genetic variants on brain development.
Article Synopsis
- The study looked at how the brain's left and right sides might differ in people with schizophrenia compared to those without it, using brain scans from over 5,000 patients and 6,000 control subjects.
- Researchers found that people with schizophrenia had slightly thinner areas in the left side of their brains, especially in certain regions, compared to those without the disorder.
- The differences in brain structure might be linked to how schizophrenia affects brain functions, like language, but more research is needed to understand why they happen.
Emerging evidence suggests brain white matter alterations in adolescents with early-onset psychosis (EOP; age of onset <18 years). However, as neuroimaging methods vary and sample sizes are modest, results remain inconclusive. Using harmonized data processing protocols and a mega-analytic approach, we compared white matter microstructure in EOP and healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
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- Schizophrenia can make the brain age faster, leading to more cognitive problems and health issues.
- A study looked at brain scans of 2,803 people with schizophrenia and 2,598 healthy people to see how much older their brains looked compared to their actual ages.
- The results showed that people with schizophrenia had brains that looked about 3.55 years older than they should be, but this wasn’t linked to how long they had the illness or how severe their symptoms were.
Naturalistic study on the use of clozapine in the early phases of non-affective psychosis: A 10-year follow-up study in the PAFIP-10 cohort.
J Psychiatr Res
September 2022
Clozapine is seldom prescribed in treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) patients during early phases of the illness. We aimed to examine the pathway and patterns and the impact of clozapine use in patients with TRS who were followed up for 10 years after the first outbreak of the illness. Data were obtained retrospectively from an epidemiological cohort of first episode schizophrenia patients (n = 218) who had been treated in a specialized intervention program (PAFIP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Neurological correlates of impaired insight in non-affective psychosis remain unclear. This study aimed to review and meta-analyze the studies assessing the grey matter volumetric correlates of impaired insight in non-affective psychosis.
Methods: This study consisted of a systematic review of 23 studies, and a meta-analysis with SDM-PSI of the 11 studies that were whole-brain and reported maps or peaks of correlation of studies investigating the grey matter volumetric correlates of insight assessments of non-affective psychosis, PubMed and OVID datasets were independently reviewed for articles reporting neuroimaging correlates of insight in non-affective psychosis.
Precuneus and insular hypoactivation during cognitive processing in first-episode psychosis: Systematic review and meta-analysis of fMRI studies.
Rev Psiquiatr Salud Ment (Engl Ed)
July 2022
Introduction: The neural correlates of the cognitive dysfunction in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are still unclear. The present review and meta-analysis provide an update of the location of the abnormalities in the fMRI-measured brain response to cognitive processes in individuals with FEP.
Methods: Systematic review and voxel-based meta-analysis of cross-sectional fMRI studies comparing neural responses to cognitive tasks between individuals with FEP and healthy controls (HC) according to PRISMA guidelines.
Schizophrenia is frequently associated with obesity, which is linked with neurostructural alterations. Yet, we do not understand how the brain correlates of obesity map onto the brain changes in schizophrenia. We obtained MRI-derived brain cortical and subcortical measures and body mass index (BMI) from 1260 individuals with schizophrenia and 1761 controls from 12 independent research sites within the ENIGMA-Schizophrenia Working Group.
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- The study examines the differences in the morphology of the human cerebral cortex across various psychiatric disorders, suggesting that early growth patterns in the cortex may influence later variations in surface area and mental health outcomes.
- Using data from over 27,000 MRI scans, researchers identified significant differences in cortical area among individuals with conditions like ADHD, schizophrenia, and major depression, particularly in association cortices linked to cognitive processing.
- The findings indicate a correlation between these structural differences and prenatal gene expression related to cell types important for brain development, highlighting how prenatal factors may play a crucial role in the risk of developing mental illnesses.
Background: To evaluate a wide range of optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters for possible application as a screening tool for cognitively healthy individuals at risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), assessing the potential relationship with established cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) core AD biomarkers and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Methods: We studied 99 participants from the Valdecilla Study for Memory and Brain Aging. This is a prospective cohort for multimodal biomarker discovery and validation that includes participants older than 55 years without dementia.
Article Synopsis
- The human brain evolves over time, with changes in structure affecting mental health and diseases throughout life.
- This study identifies genetic variants that influence brain growth and shrinkage, using data from 15,640 individuals and focusing on 15 brain structures.
- Key genes linked to metabolism were found, highlighting connections to conditions like depression and schizophrenia, and suggesting that understanding these genetic factors could lead to insights about healthy and problematic brain development and aging.
Schizophrenia is associated with widespread alterations in subcortical brain structure. While analytic methods have enabled more detailed morphometric characterization, findings are often equivocal. In this meta-analysis, we employed the harmonized ENIGMA shape analysis protocols to collaboratively investigate subcortical brain structure shape differences between individuals with schizophrenia and healthy control participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComparison of aripiprazole and risperidone effectiveness in first episode non-affective psychosis: Rationale and design of a prospective, randomized, 3-phase, investigator-initiated study (PAFIP-3).
Rev Psiquiatr Salud Ment (Engl Ed)
October 2021
Background: Selecting the most effective treatment represents a critical challenge with the potential of modifying the long-term prognosis of individuals suffering a first break of psychosis. Head-to-head clinical trials comparing effectiveness among antipsychotic drugs in individuals with a first-episode of non-affective psychosis (FEP) are scarce.
Methods: The rationale and design of a 3 phases clinical trial (PAFIP-3, NCT02305823) comparing the effectiveness of aripiprazole and risperidone, and to additionally assess the benefits of an early use of clozapine in primary treatment-resistant patients is reported.
Objective: Neurological correlates of impaired insight in non-affective psychosis remain unclear. This study aimed to review and meta-analyze the studies assessing the grey matter volumetric correlates of impaired insight in non-affective psychosis.
Methods: This study consisted of a systematic review of 23 studies, and a meta-analysis with SDM-PSI of the 11 studies that were whole-brain and reported maps or peaks of correlation of studies investigating the grey matter volumetric correlates of insight assessments of non-affective psychosis, PubMed and OVID datasets were independently reviewed for articles reporting neuroimaging correlates of insight in non-affective psychosis.
Low-frequency 1q21.1 distal deletion and duplication copy number variant (CNV) carriers are predisposed to multiple neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia, autism and intellectual disability. Human carriers display a high prevalence of micro- and macrocephaly in deletion and duplication carriers, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis copy number variant (ENIGMA-CNV) and 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome Working Groups (22q-ENIGMA WGs) were created to gain insight into the involvement of genetic factors in human brain development and related cognitive, psychiatric and behavioral manifestations. To that end, the ENIGMA-CNV WG has collated CNV and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from ~49,000 individuals across 38 global research sites, yielding one of the largest studies to date on the effects of CNVs on brain structures in the general population.
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