White Matter Disruptions in Schizophrenia Are Spatially Widespread and Topologically Converge on Brain Network Hubs.

White matter abnormalities associated with schizophrenia have been widely reported, although the consistency of findings across studies is moderate. In this study, neuroimaging was used to investigate white matter pathology and its impact on whole-brain white matter connectivity in one of the largest samples of patients with schizophrenia. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were compared between patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n = 326) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 197).

Developmental Changes in Brain Network Hub Connectivity in Late Adolescence.

The human brain undergoes substantial development throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. This maturational process is thought to include the refinement of connectivity between putative connectivity hub regions of the brain, which collectively form a dense core that enhances the functional integration of anatomically distributed, and functionally specialized, neural systems. Here, we used longitudinal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to characterize changes in connectivity between 80 cortical and subcortical anatomical regions over a 2 year period in 31 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 years.

A systematic review of diffusion weighted MRI studies of white matter microstructure in adolescent substance users.

Recent studies using diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) have provided evidence of abnormal white matter microstructure in adults with substance use disorders (SUDs). While there is a growing body of research using DW-MRI to examine the impact of heavy substance use during adolescence, this literature has not been systematically reviewed. Online databases were searched for DW-MRI studies of adolescent substance users, and 10 studies fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria.