Does dysplasia cause anatomical dysconnectivity in schizophrenia?

Schizophr Res. 1998 Mar 10;30(2):127-35. doi: 10.1016/s0920-9964(97)00141-2.

Abstract

Evidence is reviewed that dysplastic brain development in the second half of pregnancy predisposes to schizophrenia. We suggest that an important corollary of aberrant development at this stage of ontogenesis is abnormal afferentation of the cortical plate, and that this may be macroscopically measurable in terms of abnormal correlational structure in adult brain imaging data. This prediction is tested by analysis of multiple cortical volume measures on magnetic resonance imaging data acquired from 35 male right-handed schizophrenics and 35 matched controls. There are no significant differences between groups in global, intra-hemispheric or inter-hemispheric correlational structure; but schizophrenics are shown to have significantly reduced dependencies between frontal and temporal lobe volumes, and frontal and hippocampal volumes, in the left hemisphere. We conclude that anatomical dysconnectivity (between frontal and temporal cortex) in schizophrenia may be caused by dysplasia.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cerebral Cortex / embryology
  • Cerebral Cortex / pathology*
  • Factor Analysis, Statistical
  • Frontal Lobe / embryology
  • Frontal Lobe / pathology
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Neural Pathways / embryology
  • Neural Pathways / pathology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Schizophrenia / pathology*
  • Temporal Lobe / embryology
  • Temporal Lobe / pathology