title: Cortical Thickness of Functionally Defined Visual Areas in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.
abstract: Patients with schizophrenia show specific abnormalities in visual perception, and patients with bipolar disorder may have related perceptual deficits. During tasks that highlight perceptual dysfunction, patients with schizophrenia show abnormal activity in visual brain areas, including the lateral occipital complex (LOC) and early retinotopic cortex. It is unclear whether the anatomical structure of those visual areas is atypical in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In members of those two patient groups and healthy controls, we localized LOC and early retinotopic cortex individually for each participant using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), then measured the thickness of those regions of interest using structural MRI scans. In both regions, patients with schizophrenia had the thinnest cortex, controls had the thickest cortex, and bipolar patients had intermediate cortical thickness. A control region, motor cortex, did not show this pattern of group differences. The thickness of each visual region of interest was significantly correlated with performance on a visual object masking task, but only in schizophrenia patients. These findings suggest an anatomical substrate for visual processing abnormalities that have been found with both neural and behavioral measures in schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Reavis
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Junghee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Wynn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jimenez
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: MRI; mental illness; neuroanatomy; perception; visual cortex