An in vivo MRI study of prefrontal cortical complexity in first-episode psychosis.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate abnormalities in the surface complexity of the prefrontal cortex and in the hemispheric asymmetry of cortical complexity in first-episode patients with schizophrenia.


METHODS
An estimate of the surface complexity of the prefrontal cortex was derived from the number of voxels along the boundary between gray matter and CSF. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired from patients with a first episode of schizophrenia (N=17), patients with a first episode of affective psychosis (N=17), and normal comparison subjects (N=17), age-matched within a narrow age range (18-29 years). This study group was the focus of a previous study that showed lower prefrontal cortical volume in patients with schizophrenia.


RESULTS
Prefrontal cortical complexity was not significantly different among the groups. However, the schizophrenia patients differed significantly from the normal comparison subjects in asymmetry, with the schizophrenia patients showing less left-greater-than-right asymmetry in cortical complexity than the comparison subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
An abnormal pattern of asymmetry in the prefrontal cortex of first-episode patients with schizophrenia provides evidence for a neurodevelopmental mechanism in the etiology of schizophrenia.
Wiegand
Laura C
LC
Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, VA Boston Healthcare System-Brockton Division, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA 02301, USA.
Warfield
Simon K
SK
Levitt
James J
JJ
Hirayasu
Yoshio
Y
Salisbury
Dean F
DF
Heckers
Stephan
S
Bouix
Sylvain
S
Schwartz
Daniel
D
Spencer
Magdalena
M
Dickey
Chandlee C
CC
Kikinis
Ron
R
Jolesz
Ferenc A
FA
McCarley
Robert W
RW
Shenton
Martha E
ME
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000341:Affective Disorders, Psychotic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology