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Voxel-based morphometry results in first-episode schizophrenia: a comparison of publicly available software packages

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Abstract

Investigations of brain structure in schizophrenia using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have identified variations in regional grey matter (GM) volume throughout the brain but the results are mixed. This study aims to investigate whether the inconsistent voxel-based morphometry (VBM) findings in schizophrenia are due to the use of different software packages. T1 MRI images were obtained from 86 first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ) patients and 86 age- and gender-matched Healthy controls (HCs). VBM analysis was carried out using FMRIB software library (FSL) 5.0 and statistical parametric mapping 8 (SPM8). All images were processed using the default parameter settings as provided by these software packages. FSL-VBM revealed widespread GM volume reductions in FESZ patients compared with HCs, however, for SPM-VBM, only increased and circumscribed GM volume changes were found, both software revealed increased GM volume within cerebellum. Significant correlations between Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and GM volume were mainly found in frontal regions. Algorithms of GM tissue segmentation, image registration and statistical strategies might contribute to these disparate results.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 81571651, 81601474 and 81801772 and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (2017ZDXM-SF-048).

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  1. Chen Li, Wenming Liu, Fan Guo and Xingrui Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, No. 127 West Changle Road, Xi’an, 710032, China

    Chen Li, Fan Guo, Xingrui Wang, Xiaowei Kang, Yongqiang Xu, Yibin Xi, Yuanqiang Zhu & Hong Yin

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

    Wenming Liu & Huaning Wang

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  1. Chen Li
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  2. Wenming Liu
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  3. Fan Guo
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  5. Xiaowei Kang
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Correspondence to Yuanqiang Zhu or Hong Yin.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University Subcommittee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Figure S1

Correlations between PANSS Scale and GM volume of brain regions, correlations were only found in brain regions which showed GM reductions revealed by FSL-VBM. (PNG 2411 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 532 kb)

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Li, C., Liu, W., Guo, F. et al. Voxel-based morphometry results in first-episode schizophrenia: a comparison of publicly available software packages. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 2224–2231 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00172-x

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