Summary
Twenty patients with schizophrenia and ten normal control subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. The volumes of several brain structures were measured using a computer image analysing system. The schizophrenic patients had significantly smaller left parahippocampal volume and larger left temporal horn volume than the control subjects. A larger body of the right lateral ventricle could be estimated in the schizophrenics, but this difference was not significant. In the patient group a non-significant negative corrlation was established between the presence of positive symptoms and the left temporal horn volume. There was no signieficant correlation between the temporal horn and temporal lobe or medial temporal structures. Our results indicate that the left medial temporal structure or left temporal lobe may be involved in schizophrenia and that temporal horn enlargement does not simply represent volume loss of the surrounding tissue.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altshuler LL, Casanova MF, Goldberg TE, Kleinman JE (1990) The hippocampus and parahippocampus in schizophrenic, suicide, and control brains. Arch Gen Psychiatry 47:1029–1034
Amercian Psychiatric Association, committee on Nomencalture and statistics (1987) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd edn, revised American Psychiatric Association. Washington, D.C.
Andreasen NC, Nasrallah HA, Dunn V, Olson SC, Grove WM, Ehrhardt JC, Coffman JA, Crossett JHW (1986) Structural abnormalities in the frontal system in schizophrenia: a magnetic resonance imaging study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43:136–144
Andreasen NC, Ehrhardt JC, Swayze VW, Alliger RJ, Yuh WTC, Cohen G, Ziebell S (1990) Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in schizophrenia: the pathophysiologic significance of structural abnormalities. Arch Gen Psychiatry 47:35–44
Barta PE, Pearlson GD, Powers RE, Richards SS, Tune LE (1990) Auditory hallucinations and smalle supperior temporal gyral volume in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 147:1457–1462
Bogerts B, Meertz E, Schonfeldt-Bausch R (1985) Basal ganglia and limbic system pathology in schizophrenia. Arrch gen Psychiatry 42:784–791
Bogerts B, Ashtari M, Degreef G, Alvir JMJ, Bilder RM, Lieberman JA (1990) Reduced temporal limbic structure volumes on magnetic resonance images in first episode schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 35:1–13
Buchsbaum MS, Nuechterlein KH, Haier RJ, Wu J, Sicotte N, Hazlett E, Asarnow R, Potkin S, Guich S (1990), Glucose metabolic rate in normals and schizophrenics during the continuous performance test assessed by positron emission tomogfaphy. Br J Psycxhiatry 156:216–227
Chi JG, Dooling EC, Gilles FH (1977) Gyral development of the human brain. Ann Neurol 1:86–93
Crow TJ, Ball J, Bloom SR, Brown R, Bruton CJ, Colter N, Frith CD, Johnstone EC, Owens DGC, Roberts GW (1989) Schizophrenia as an anomaly of development of cerebral asymmetry. Arch Gen Psychiatry 46:1145–1150
Daniel DG, Goldberg TE, Gibbons RD, Weinberger DR (1991) Lack of a bimodal distribution of ventricular size in schizsophrenia: a gaussian mixture analysis of 1056 cases and controls. Biol Psychiatry 30:887–903
DeLisi LE, Dauphinais D, Gershon ES (1988) Perionatal complications and reduced size of brain limbic structures in familial schizophorenia. Schizophr Bull 14:185–191
DeLisi LE, Buchsbaum MS, Holcomb HH, Lwagston KC, King AC, Kessler R, Picker D, Carpenter WT, Morihisa JM, Margolin R, Weinberger DR (1989) Increased temporal lobe glucose use in chronic schizophrenic patients. Biol Psychiatry 25:835–851
De Myer MK, Gilmer RL, Hendrie HC, De Myer WE, Augustyn GT, Jackson RK (1988) Magnetic resonnace brain images in schizophrenic and normal subjects influence of diagnosis and education. Schizophr Bull 14:21–37
Falkai P, Bosgerts B, Rozumek M (1988) Cell loss and volume reduction in the entorhinal cortex of schizophrenics. Biol Psychiatry 24F:515–521
Garver CL, Zemlan F, Hirschowitz J, Hitemann R, Mavroidis ML (1984) Dopamine and non-dopamine psychoses. Psychopharmacology 84:138–140
Haug JO (1982) Pneumoencephalographic evidence of brain atrophy in acute and chronic schizophorenic patients. Acta Psychiatr Scand 66:374–383
Heckers S, Heinsen H., Heinsen Y, Beckmann H (1991) Cortex, white matter, and basal ganglia in schizophrenia: a volumetric postmortem study. Biol Psychiatry 29:556–566
Jakob H, Beckmann H (1986) Prenatal developmental disturbances in the limbic eallocortex of schizophrenics. J Ment Transm 65:303–326
Johnstone EC, Crow TJ, Frith CD, Husband J, Kreel L (1976) Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet II:924–926
Kawasaki Y, Suzuki M, Maeda Y, Urata K, Yamaguchi N, Matsuda H, Hisada K, Suzuki M, Takashima T (1992) Regional cerebral blood flow in patients with schizophrenia: a preliminary report. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 241:195–200
Kay SR, Fiszbein A, Lindenmyer JP, Opler LA (1986) Positive and negative syndromes in schizophrenia as a function of chronicity. Acta Psychiatr Scand 74:507–518
Kay SR, Opler LA, Fiszbein A (1991) Positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) rating manual. Multi-Health Inc, Ontario
Luchins DJ, Weinberger DR, Wyatt RJ (1979) Schizophrenia: evidence of a subgroup with reversed cerebral asymmetry. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36:1309–1311
Musalek M, Podreka I, Walter H, Suess E, Passweg V, Nutzinger D, Strobl R, Lesch OM (1989) Regional brain fucction in hallucinations: a study of regional cerebral blood flow with 99m-TcHMPAO-SPECT in patients with auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, and normal controls. Compr Psychiatry 30:99–108
Pakkenberg B (1987) Post-mortem study of chroinic schizoophrenic brains. Br J Psychiatry 151:744–752
Pearlson GD, Harris GJ, Powers RE, Barta PE, Camargo EE, Chase GA, Noga JT, Tune LT (1992) Quantitative changes in mesial temporal volume, regional cerebral blood flow, and cognition in Alzheimer's diseasse. Arch Gen Psychiatry 49:402–408
Shelton RC, Karson CN, Doran AR, Pickar D, Bigelow LB, Weinberger DR (1988) Cerebral structural pathology in schizophrenia: evidence for a selective prefrontal cortical defect. Am J Psychiatry 145:154–163
Shenton M, Kikinis R, Jolesz FA, Pollak AD, LeMay M, Wible CG, Hokama H, Martin J, Metcalf D, Coleman M, Mccarley RW (1992) Abnormalities of the left temporal lobe and thought disorder in schizophrenia: a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study. N Engl J Med 327:604–612
Smith RC, Crayton J, Dekirmenjian H, Klass D, Davis JM (1979) Blood levels of neuroleptic drugs in non-responding chronic schizophrenic patients. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36:579–584
Suddath RL, Casanova MF, Goldberg TE, Daniel DG, Kelsoe JR, Weinberger DR (1989) Temporal lobe pathology in schizophrenia: a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study. Am J Psychiatry 146:464–472
Uematsu M, Kaiya H (1989) Midsagittal cortical pathomorphology of schizophrenia: a magnetic resonance imaging study. Psychiatry Res 30:11–20
Weinberger DR, Torrey EF, Neophytides AN, Wyatt RJ (1979) Structural abnormalities of the cerebral cortex of chronic schizophrenic patients. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36:935–939
Weinberger DR, Berman KF, Zec RF (1986) Physiologic dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia: I. regional cerebral blood flow evidence. Arch Gen sychiatry 43:114–124
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kawasaki, Y., Maeda, Y., Urata, K. et al. A quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study of patients with schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 242, 268–272 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190385
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190385