Elisabetta C. Del Re1,2, William S. Stone3, Yingying Tang4, Tianhong Zang4, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli5, Jijun Wang4, Larry J. Seidman3,6, Nikos Makris6, Margaret A Niznikiewicz2, Robert W McCarley2, Martha E. Shenton1,2; 1Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 2Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, 3Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 4Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 5McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 6Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Purpose: Frontal and temporal lobes are often affected in schizophrenia. Here we hypothesized that cortical thickness (CT) and/or surface area (SA) and integrity of several white matter tracts related to frontal and temporal lobes, alone or in aggregate, distinguish CHR converters (CHR-C) from CHR non-converters (CHR-NC). Materials and methods: Magnetic resonance images and clinical/cognitive data were acquired in 92 healthy controls (HC), 130 CHR-NC and 22 CHR-C at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, China, as part of the NIMH-funded SHARP research program. Assessment of 9 temporal and 11 frontal regions from the two lobes in both hemispheres, as well as the superior longitudinal (SLF), arcuate (AF), extreme capsule (ECFS), and uncinate (UF) white matter tracts was carried out by using an internal pipeline developed at the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory (PNL), Brigham and Women's Hospital, HMS. Results: Temporal lobe: The posterior region of superior temporal sulcus and Heschl’s gyrus CT were smaller in CHR-C compared to CHR-NC (p=0.027) and NC (p=0.002). Middle temporal gyrus (MTG) CT was also smaller in CHR-C than HC (p=0.004) with trend level findings for CHR-NC (p=0.098). Frontal lobe: The pars triangularis CT was smaller in CHR-C vs CHR-NC (p=0.02) and HC (p=0.012). In CHR-C, CT of MTG correlated with Verbal Learning (rho=0.64; p=0.002) and Visual Memory Tests (rho=0.6, p=0.004). These correlations were not present in HC or CHR-NC. Analyses of tractography data are in progress. Conclusion: Results indicate that language circuits are among the earliest regions affected in schizophrenia and distinguish CHR-C from CHR-NC.
