Cortical folding in Broca's area relates to obstetric complications in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.
BACKGROUND
The increased occurrence of obstetric complications (OCs) in patients with schizophrenia suggests that alterations in neurodevelopment may be of importance to the aetiology of the illness. Abnormal cortical folding may reflect subtle deviation from normal neurodevelopment during the foetal or neonatal period. In the present study, we hypothesized that OCs would be related to cortical folding abnormalities in schizophrenia patients corresponding to areas where patients with schizophrenia display altered cortical folding when compared with healthy controls.


METHODS
In total, 54 schizophrenia patients and 54 healthy control subjects underwent clinical examination and magnetic resonance image scanning on a 1.5 T scanner. Information on OCs was collected from original birth records. An automated algorithm was used to calculate a three-dimensional local gyrification index (lGI) at numerous points across the cortical mantle.


RESULTS
In both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, an increasing number of OCs was significantly related to lower lGI in the left pars triangularis (p<0.0005) in Broca's area. For five other anatomical cortical parcellations in the left hemisphere, a similar trend was demonstrated. No significant relationships between OCs and lGI were found in the right hemisphere and there were no significant case-control differences in lGI.


CONCLUSIONS
The reduced cortical folding in the left pars triangularis, associated with OCs in both patients and control subjects suggests that the cortical effect of OCs is caused by factors shared by schizophrenia patients and healthy controls rather than factors related to schizophrenia alone.
Department of Clinical Medicine, section Vinderen, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. unn.haukvik@medisin.uio.no
U K
UK
Haukvik
M
M
Schaer
R
R
Nesvåg
T
T
McNeil
C B
CB
Hartberg
E G
EG
Jönsson
S
S
Eliez
I
I
Agartz
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000196:embryology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*