title: Disruption of hippocampal connectivity in children and adolescents with schizophrenia--a voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One hypothesis that unifies the diversity of symptoms associated with schizophrenia involves the disruption of connectivity between brain regions. As white matter provides rapid and efficient communication between brain regions, this study was initiated to assess the early disruption of white matter pathways in children and adolescent with schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Diffusion tensor images were acquired on 14 children and adolescents with schizophrenia, one subject with schizoaffective disorder, and 15 age and gender matched controls. The DTI images were acquired in twelve directions on a 3 T Siemens Trio scanner. The images were transformed into fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity maps and a group analysis was performed using SPM2.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children and adolescent patients with schizophrenia demonstrated a significant decrease in FA and associated increase in AD in the left posterior hippocampus (p<0.001, Bonferroni corrected on the cluster-level). These diffusion differences were not statistically significant when IQ was used as a covariate in the analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest hippocampal white matter abnormalities that present early in the development of schizophrenia. The lack of significant differences when IQ is used as a covariate suggests that this hippocampal region is associated with cognitive changes associated with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA. twhite@umn.edu
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Ayse Tuba Karagulle
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kendi
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lehéricy
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kendi
authors.forename: Canan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Karatekin
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guimaraes
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Davenport
authors.forename: S Charles
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Kelvin O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016880:Anisotropy; D002648:Child; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008032:Limbic System / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012016:Reference Values