Psychiatry Investig.  2020 Apr;17(4):341-349. 10.30773/pi.2019.0200.

Additive Burden of Abnormal Diffusivity in the Brainwith Schizophrenia: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studywith Public Neuroimaging Data

• Jo YT
• Lee J
• Joo SW
• Kim H
• Shon SH
• Yoon W
• Hong Y

• KMID: 2500240
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2019.0200

Abstract

Objective
Diffusion tensor imaging has been extensively applied to schizophrenia research. In this study, we counted the number of abnormal brain regions with altered diffusion measures in patients with schizophrenia to enumerate the burden of abnormal diffusivity in the brain.
Methods
The public neuroimaging data of the COBRE project from SchizConnect were used for the study. The studied dataset consisted of data from 57 patients with schizophrenia and 71 healthy participants. FreeSurfer and FSL were applied for image processing and analysis. After verifying 161 regions of interest (ROIs), mean diffusion measures in every single ROI in all study participants were measured and normalized into Z-scores. Each ROI was then defined as normal or abnormal on the basis of a cutoff absolute Z-score of 1.96. The number of abnormal ROIs was obtained by each diffusion measure.
Results
The numbers of ROIs with increased radial diffusivity and increased trace were significantly larger in the patient group than in healthy participants.
Conclusion
Thus, the patient group showed a significant increase in abnormal ROIs, strongly indicating that schizophrenia is not caused by the pathology of a single brain region, but is instead attributable to the additive burden of structural alterations within multiple brain regions. Psychiatry Investig 2020;17(4):341-349

Keyword

Neuroimaging; Psychiatry; Schizophrenia