Background: Studies to date examining cortical thickness and surface area in young individuals At Risk Mental State (ARMS) of developing psychosis have revealed inconsistent findings, either reporting increased, decreased or no differences compared to mentally healthy individuals. The inconsistencies may be attributed to small sample sizes, varying age ranges, different ARMS identification criteria, lack of control for recreational substance use and antipsychotic pharmacotherapy, as well as different methods for deriving morphological brain measures.
Methods: A surfaced-based approach was employed to calculate fronto-temporal cortical grey matter thickness and surface area derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data collected from 44 young antipsychotic-naïve ARMS individuals, 19 young people with recent onset schizophrenia, and 36 age-matched healthy volunteers.
JAMA Psychiatry
January 2021
Objective: Schizophrenia has recently been associated with widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities, but the functional effects of these abnormalities remain unclear. Widespread heterogeneity of results from studies published to date preclude any definitive characterization of the relationship between white matter and cognitive performance in schizophrenia. Given the relevance of deficits in cognitive function to predicting social and functional outcomes in schizophrenia, the authors carried out a meta-analysis of available data through the ENIGMA Consortium, using a common analysis pipeline, to elucidate the relationship between white matter microstructure and a measure of general cognitive performance, IQ, in patients with schizophrenia and healthy participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe organized 10Kin1day, a pop-up scientific event with the goal to bring together neuroimaging groups from around the world to jointly analyze 10,000+ existing MRI connectivity datasets during a 3-day workshop. In this report, we describe the motivation and principles of 10Kin1day, together with a public release of 8,000+ MRI connectome maps of the human brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe human cerebellum plays an essential role in motor control, is involved in cognitive function (i.e., attention, working memory, and language), and helps to regulate emotional responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group.
Methods: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.
Occipital sources of resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha rhythms are abnormal, at the group level, in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we evaluated the hypothesis that amplitude of these occipital sources is related to neurodegeneration in occipital lobe as measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Resting-state eyes-closed EEG rhythms were recorded in 45 healthy elderly (Nold), 100 MCI, and 90 AD subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of the event-related potential elicited by deviant auditory stimuli. It is presumed to index pre-attentive monitoring of changes in the auditory environment. MMN amplitude is smaller in groups of individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Gray matter atrophy is regarded as a valid marker of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but few studies have investigated in detail the topographic changes associated with normal aging. In addition, few studies have compared the changes in the earliest clinical stage of AD (prodromal AD (pAD)) with those of healthy aging. Here we aimed to investigate the topographical distribution of age-related cortical atrophy and to compare it with that associated with prodromal and estabilished AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychopathy is characterized by abnormal emotional processes, but only recent neuroimaging studies have investigated its cerebral correlates. The study aim was to map local differences of cortical and amygdalar morphology. Cortical pattern matching and radial distance mapping techniques were used to analyze the magnetic resonance images of 26 violent male offenders (age: 32±8) with psychopathy diagnosed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and no schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and in matched controls (age: 35± sp="0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidemiological data link adolescent cannabis use to psychosis and schizophrenia, but its contribution to schizophrenia neuropathology remains controversial. First-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients show regional cerebral grey- and white-matter changes as well as a distinct pattern of regional grey-matter loss in the vermis of the cerebellum. The cerebellum possesses a high density of cannabinoid type 1 receptors involved in the neuronal diversification of the developing brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Although several lines of evidence implicate gray matter abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex in patients with bipolar disorder, findings have been largely inconsistent across studies. Differences in patients' medication status or mood state or the application of traditional volumetric methods that are insensitive to subtle neuroanatomical differences may have contributed to variations in findings. The authors used MRI in conjunction with cortical pattern matching methods to assess cortical thickness abnormalities in euthymic bipolar patients who were not receiving lithium treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrior studies reported that the hippocampal volume is smaller in Alzheimer's disease patients carrying the Apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4) versus patients who are non-carriers of this allele. This effect however has not been detected consistently, possibly because of the regionally-specific involvement of the hippocampal formation in Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this study was to analyze the local effect of APOE4 on hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer's disease patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent evidence suggests that putting feelings into words activates the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and suppresses the response of the amygdala, potentially helping to alleviate emotional distress. To further elucidate the relationship between brain structure and function in these regions, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were collected from a sample of 20 healthy human subjects. Structural MRI data were processed using cortical pattern-matching algorithms to produce spatially normalized maps of cortical thickness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMild cognitive impairment (MCI) is defined by memory impairment with no impact on daily activities. 10 to 15% of MCI convert to Alzheimer's disease (AD) per year. While structural changes in the cortex of AD patients have been extensively investigated, fewer studies analyzed changes in the years preceding conversion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Cognitive impairment is prevalent in older schizophrenia patients but its biological basis is unknown. Neuropathological studies have not revealed Alzheimer disease (AD) lesion burden but in vivo data are lacking.
Method: We investigated the concentrations of CSF biomarkers of brain amyloidosis (Abeta42) and neurodegeneration (total and p-tau) in a group of older schizophrenia patients and related them to cognitive and MRI measures.