A Systematic Characterization of Structural Brain Changes in Schizophrenia

A systematic characterization of the similarities and differences among different methods for detecting structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia,such as voxel-based morphometry(VBM),tensor-based morphometry(TBM),and projection-based thickness(PBT),is important for understanding the brain pathology in schizophrenia and for developing effective biomarkers for a diagnosis of schizophrenia.However,such studies are still lacking.Here,we performed VBM,TBM,and PBT analyses on T1-weighted brain MR images acquired from 116 patients with schizophrenia and 116 healthy controls.We found that,although all methods detected wide-spread structural changes,different methods captured different information-only 10.35%of the grey matter changes in cortex were detected by all three methods,and VBM only detected 11.36%of the white matter changes detected by TBM.Further,pattern classification between patients and controls revealed that combining different measures improved the classification accuracy(81.9%),indicating that fusion of different structural measures serves as a better neuroimaging marker for the objective diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Impaired brain white matter and functional networks in healthy individuals with auditory verbal hallucinations

To the Editor:Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are experienced concomitantly with various neuropsychiatric diagnoses including schizophrenia,bipolar disorder,major depression disorder,post-traumatic stress disorder,and borderline personality disorder.