Microstructural abnormalities of uncinate fasciculus as a function of impaired cognition in schizophrenia: A DTI study

Journal of biosciences

PRABHJOT KAUR²  SATNAM GOYAL¹  SMITA N DESHPANDE¹  TRIPTISH BHATIA¹  NAMITA SINGH²  SADHANA SINGH²  RICHA TRIVEDI²  KAVITA SINGH²  SUBASH KHUSHU1² 

[1] Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), RML Hospital, New Delhi, India$$;NMR Research Centre, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), DRDO, New Delhi, India$$

关键词: Diffusion tensor imaging;    fractional anisotropy;    mean diffusivity;    schizophrenia;    uncinate fasciculus;   

DOI  :  

来源: Indian Academy of Sciences

【 摘 要 】

Neuropsychological studies have reported that attention, memory, language, motor and emotion processing areimpaired in schizophrenia. It is known that schizophrenia involves structural alterations in the white matter of brainthat contribute to the pathophysiology of the disorder. Uncinate fasciculus (UNC), a bundle of white matter fibres,plays an important role in the pathology of this disorder and involved in cognitive functions such as memory, languageand emotion processing. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate microstructural changes in UNC fibre inschizophrenia patients relative to controls and its correlation with neuropsychological scores.Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and Hindi version of Penn Computerised Neuropsychological Battery test wasperformed in 14 schizophrenia patients and 14 controls. DTI measures [fractional anisotropy (FA) and meandiffusivity (MD)] from UNC fibre were calculated and a comparison was made between patients and controls.Pearson’s correlation was performed between neuropsychological scores and DTI measures.Schizophrenia patientsshowed significantly reduced FA values in UNC fibre compared to controls. In schizophrenia patients, a positivecorrelation of attention, spatial memory, sensorimotor dexterity and emotion with FA was observed. These findingssuggest that microstructural changes in UNC fibre may contribute to underlying dysfunction in the cognitive functionsassociated with schizophrenia.

【 授权许可】

Unknown