Localized abnormalities in the cingulum bundle in patients with schizophrenia: A Diffusion Tensor tractography study

NeuroImage: Clinical

Robert W. McCarley¹  Margaret Niznikiewicz¹  Paul G. Nestor¹  Carl-Fredrik Westin²  Rodrigo de Luis-Garcia²  Peter Savadjiev³  Martha E. Shenton³  Jorge L. Alvarado³  Sun Woo Lee³  Marek Kubicki³  Jungsu S. Oh³  Thomas J. Whitford⁴ 

[1] Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Boston Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Brockton Division, Brockton, MA, USA and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA;Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA;Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA;School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia;

关键词: Schizophrenia;    Cingulum bundle;    Cingulate gyrus;    Diffusion Tensor Imaging;    DTI;    Fractional Anisotropy;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.nicl.2014.06.003

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The cingulum bundle (CB) connects gray matter structures of the limbic system and as such has been implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia. There is growing evidence to suggest that the CB is actually comprised of a conglomeration of discrete sub-connections. The present study aimed to use Diffusion Tensor tractography to subdivide the CB into its constituent sub-connections, and to investigate the structural integrity of these sub-connections in patients with schizophrenia and matched healthy controls. Diffusion Tensor Imaging scans were acquired from 24 patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia and 26 matched healthy controls. Deterministic tractography was used in conjunction with FreeSurfer-based regions-of-interest to subdivide the CB into 5 sub-connections (I1 to I5). The patients with schizophrenia exhibited subnormal levels of FA in two cingulum sub-connections, specifically the fibers connecting the rostral and caudal anterior cingulate gyrus (I1) and the fibers connecting the isthmus of the cingulate with the parahippocampal cortex (I4). Furthermore, while FA in the I1 sub-connection was correlated with the severity of patients' positive symptoms (specifically hallucinations and delusions), FA in the I4 sub-connection was correlated with the severity of patients' negative symptoms (specifically affective flattening and anhedonia/asociality). These results support the notion that the CB is a conglomeration of structurally interconnected yet functionally distinct sub-connections, of which only a subset are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, while acknowledging the fact that the present study only investigated the CB, these results suggest that the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia may have distinct neurobiological underpinnings.

【 授权许可】

Unknown