title: Disrupted white matter integrity of corticopontine-cerebellar circuitry in schizophrenia.
abstract: Evidence for white matter abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia is increasing. Decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in interhemispheric commissural fibers as well as long-ranging fronto-parietal association fibers belongs to the most frequent findings. The present study used tract-based spatial statistics to investigate white matter integrity in 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy volunteers. We found that patients exhibited significantly decreased FA relative to healthy subjects in the corpus callosum, the cerebral peduncle, the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, the anterior thalamic radiation, the right posterior corona radiata, the middle cerebellar peduncle, and the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. Increased FA was detectable in the inferior sections of the corticopontine-cerebellar circuit. Present data indicate extended cortical-subcortical alterations of white matter integrity in schizophrenia using advanced data analysis strategies. They corroborate preceding findings of white matter structural deficits in mainly long-ranging association fibers and provide first evidence for neuroplastic changes in terms of an increased directionality in more inferior fiber tracts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jahnstr. 3, Philosophenweg 3, 07740, Jena, Germany. kathrin.koch@med.uni-jena.de
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dahnke
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schachtzabel
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roebel
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Güllmar
authors.forename: Jürgen R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Reichenbach
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sauer
authors.forename: Ralf G M
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Schlösser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult