Loss of sylvian fissure asymmetry in schizophrenia. A quantitative post mortem study.
The sylvian fissure is known to be one of the most asymmetric structures of the human brain. Sylvian fissure length was measured in post-mortem brains of 35 schizophrenic patients and 33 matched non psychiatric control subjects. The schizophrenics showed a significantly reduced length of the left sylvian fissure (-16%, p less than 0.0001) compared to the control subjects, while the right sylvian fissure length was unchanged. Sylvian fissure asymmetry (left/right ratio) was more reduced in male schizophrenics (-24%, p less than 0.001) than in female patients (-16%, p less than 0.03). This finding is consistent with several post-mortem and MRI studies showing left temporal lobe pathology in a significant proportion of patients and may indicate that schizophrenia is a disorder of early neurodevelopment causing impaired cerebral lateralization.
Falkai
P
P
Department of Psychiatry, University of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Bogerts
B
B
Greve
B
B
Pfeiffer
U
U
Machus
B
B
Fölsch-Reetz
B
B
Majtenyi
C
C
Ovary
I
I
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002535:Cerebral Aqueduct / Q000473:pathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012727:Sex Characteristics