Fujiwara Hironobu, Hirao Kazuyuki, Namiki Chihiro, Yamada Makiko, Shimizu Mitsuaki, Fukuyama Hidenao, Hayashi Takuji, Murai Toshiya
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Kawara-cho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
Neuroimage. 2007 Jul 15;36(4):1236-45. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.068. Epub 2007 Apr 25.
The anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) is a critical structure for social cognitive processing; the pathology of this structure might be a major source of social dysfunction in schizophrenia. Multiple structural abnormalities of the ACG have been demonstrated in schizophrenia including changes in gray matter volume, white matter microstructures and macroscopic sulcal morphology. However, the interrelationships among these different abnormalities have not been investigated. Thus, the relationship between structural abnormalities in the ACG and social cognition in schizophrenia remains to be elucidated. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired at 3.0 T from 26 schizophrenic patients and 20 healthy participants. We performed anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) volumetry, evaluated diffusion tensor imaging of the anterior cingulum, analyzed paracingulate/cingulate sulcus (PCS/CS) morphology and investigated the interrelationships among these measures. We also investigated the association between ACG structural abnormalities and psychopathology, and the social cognition ability of schizophrenic patients as estimated by emotion attribution tasks. Compared with healthy subjects, schizophrenic patients exhibited reduced ACC volume, decreased fractional anisotropy in the anterior cingulum bilaterally and a poorly developed PCS/CS in the left hemisphere. No interrelationship was identified among these measures in the schizophrenic group. Schizophrenic patients performed poorly on emotion attribution tasks. Importantly, clinical symptoms and performance on emotion attribution subtasks were associated with ACC volumes and left PCS/CS variation in different ways. These results suggested that pathology of the ACC, anterior cingulum and PCS/CS is, at least partially, independent and has differential impacts on psychopathology and social cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.
前扣带回皮质（ACG）是社会认知加工的关键结构；该结构的病理学改变可能是精神分裂症社会功能障碍的主要根源。在精神分裂症中已证实ACG存在多种结构异常，包括灰质体积变化、白质微观结构和宏观脑沟形态改变。然而，这些不同异常之间的相互关系尚未得到研究。因此，精神分裂症中ACG结构异常与社会认知之间的关系仍有待阐明。对26例精神分裂症患者和20名健康参与者进行了3.0T磁共振成像数据采集。我们进行了前扣带回皮质（ACC）体积测量，评估了前扣带束的扩散张量成像，分析了扣带旁/扣带沟（PCS/CS）形态，并研究了这些测量指标之间的相互关系。我们还研究了ACG结构异常与精神病理学之间的关联以及通过情感归因任务评估的精神分裂症患者的社会认知能力。与健康受试者相比，精神分裂症患者的ACC体积减小，双侧前扣带束的分数各向异性降低，左侧半球的PCS/CS发育不良。在精神分裂症组中未发现这些测量指标之间存在相互关系。精神分裂症患者在情感归因任务上表现不佳。重要的是，临床症状和情感归因子任务的表现与ACC体积和左侧PCS/CS变化以不同方式相关。这些结果表明，ACC、前扣带束和PCS/CS的病理学改变至少部分是独立的，并且对精神分裂症的精神病理学和社会认知损害有不同影响。
