The visual cortex in schizophrenia: alterations of gyrification rather than cortical thickness--a combined cortical shape analysis.

• Autores: C. Christoph Schultz, Gerd Wagner, Kathrin Koch, Christian Gaser, Martin Roebel, Claudia Schachtzabel, Igor Nenadic, Jürgen R Reichenbach, Heinrich Sauer, Ralf G M Schlösser
• Localización: Brain Structure and Function, ISSN 1863-2653, ISSN-e 1863-2661, Vol. 218, Nº. 1, 2013, págs. 51-58
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In light of bottom-up models of disrupted cognition in schizophrenia, visual processing deficits became a key feature for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, morphometric studies focusing on the visual cortex are limited. Thus, the present study sought to provide a combined cortical shape analysis (cortical thickness, folding) of visual areas, which were implicated to be involved in disturbed visual processing in schizophrenia. A group of 72 patients with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV and 72 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects were included. All participants underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scans on a 1.5-T scanner. Cortical thickness and mean curvature of the V1, V2 and V5/MT+ visual cortex were estimated using an automated computerized algorithm (Freesurfer Software). A GLM controlling for the effect of age was used to estimate differences of cortical shape parameters between the study groups. Significantly increased gyrification of the V1, V2 and the V5/MT+ visual area bilaterally was detected. Conversely, cortical thickness was reduced in patients with schizophrenia only for the V5/MT+ area. This study is the first providing direct in vivo evidence for a disturbed cortical shape of central visual areas in schizophrenia. The present findings of hypergyria are highly indicative for a disrupted corticogenesis of these visual key regions and might constitute a relevant anatomical basis for visual processing deficits in schizophrenia.;