Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jahnstr. 3, Philosophenweg 3, 07740, Jena, Germany.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2010 Aug;260(5):419-26. doi: 10.1007/s00406-009-0087-0. Epub 2009 Nov 15.
Evidence for white matter abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia is increasing. Decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in interhemispheric commissural fibers as well as long-ranging fronto-parietal association fibers belongs to the most frequent findings. The present study used tract-based spatial statistics to investigate white matter integrity in 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy volunteers. We found that patients exhibited significantly decreased FA relative to healthy subjects in the corpus callosum, the cerebral peduncle, the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, the anterior thalamic radiation, the right posterior corona radiata, the middle cerebellar peduncle, and the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. Increased FA was detectable in the inferior sections of the corticopontine-cerebellar circuit. Present data indicate extended cortical-subcortical alterations of white matter integrity in schizophrenia using advanced data analysis strategies. They corroborate preceding findings of white matter structural deficits in mainly long-ranging association fibers and provide first evidence for neuroplastic changes in terms of an increased directionality in more inferior fiber tracts.
越来越多的证据表明精神分裂症患者存在脑白质异常。大脑半球间连合纤维以及长程额顶叶联络纤维的各向异性分数（FA）降低是最常见的发现之一。本研究采用基于束路径的空间统计学方法，对 35 名精神分裂症患者和 35 名健康志愿者的脑白质完整性进行了研究。结果发现，与健康对照组相比，患者的胼胝体、大脑脚、左侧额枕下束、内囊前肢、右侧后放射冠、小脑下脚和右侧上纵束的 FA 值显著降低。在皮质脑桥小脑回路的下部可检测到 FA 值增加。目前的数据表明，使用先进的数据分析策略，精神分裂症患者存在广泛的皮质-皮质下脑白质完整性改变。这些发现与主要长程联络纤维存在脑白质结构缺陷的先前研究结果一致，并首次提供了纤维束方向变化的证据，表明存在神经可塑性改变。
