title: Neuroanatomical circuitry associated with exploratory eye movement in schizophrenia: a voxel-based morphometric study.
abstract: Schizophrenic patients present abnormalities in a variety of eye movement tasks. Exploratory eye movement (EEM) dysfunction appears to be particularly specific to schizophrenia. However, the underlying mechanisms of EEM dysfunction in schizophrenia are not clearly understood. To assess the potential neuroanatomical substrates of EEM, we recorded EEM performance and conducted a voxel-based morphometric analysis of gray matter in 33 schizophrenic patients and 29 well matched healthy controls. In schizophrenic patients, decreased responsive search score (RSS) and widespread gray matter density (GMD) reductions were observed. Moreover, the RSS was positively correlated with GMD in distributed brain regions in schizophrenic patients. Furthermore, in schizophrenic patients, some brain regions with neuroanatomical deficits overlapped with some ones associated with RSS. These brain regions constituted an occipito-tempro-frontal circuitry involved in visual information processing and eye movement control, including the left calcarine cortex [Brodmann area (BA) 17], the left cuneus (BA 18), the left superior occipital cortex (BA 18/19), the left superior frontal gyrus (BA 6), the left cerebellum, the right lingual cortex (BA 17/18), the right middle occipital cortex (BA19), the right inferior temporal cortex (BA 37), the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46) and bilateral precentral gyri (BA 6) extending to the frontal eye fields (FEF, BA 8). To our knowledge, we firstly reported empirical evidence that gray matter loss in the occipito-tempro-frontal neuroanatomical circuitry of visual processing system was associated with EEM performance in schizophrenia, which may be helpful for the future effort to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms for EEM disturbances in schizophrenia.
authors: Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors: Linlin
authors: L
authors: Qiu
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Tian
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Pan
authors: Risheng
authors: R
authors: Zhu
authors: Qi
authors: Q
authors: Liu
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Yan
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Zhao
authors: Huishu
authors: H
authors: Yuan
authors: Yonghua
authors: Y
authors: Han
authors: Weihua
authors: W
authors: Yue
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Yan
authors: Dai
authors: D
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013499:Surface Properties; D055815:Young Adult