Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Psychiatry Res. 2010 Jun 30;182(3):223-30. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.02.006. Epub 2010 May 20.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether volumetric abnormalities of the caudate nuclei predate the onset of psychotic illness. Caudate nuclei volume (CNVs), excluding the tail, were measured using region-of-interest (ROI) tracing of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans acquired on a 1.5T scanner. Subjects included 39 individuals deemed at ultra-high risk of psychosis who converted to psychosis (UHR-P) after initial MRI scanning; 39 matched individuals at ultra-high risk who did not convert to psychosis (UHR-NP); and 39 matched healthy controls. All subjects were neuroleptic-naïve. After adjusting CNVs for intracranial volume (ICV), univariate analyses of variance and repeated measures analyses of variance were undertaken to examine the relationship of CNVs to psychosis transition and to family history of psychosis. Pearson's correlations were used to investigate the relationship of psychopathological scores to CNVs. CNVs did not differ significantly between UHR individuals and healthy controls, and there was no significant difference between converters and non-converters to psychosis. In the UHR group, presence of family history of psychosis was not related to CNVs. There was no correlation between CNVs and either positive or negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Significant associations were found between larger CNV and increased errors on a spatial working memory task but better verbal fluency performance. These data suggest that the caudate is macroscopically normal prior to illness onset, while the relationship to tasks of executive function may implicate the caudate together with its connections to prefrontal regions. Future research should examine changes longitudinally together with analysis of shape to assess subregions of the caudate that connect with prefrontal cortex.
本研究旨在探讨尾状核体积异常是否先于精神病发作。使用磁共振成像（MRI）扫描的 ROI 追踪技术测量尾状核体积（CNV），不包括尾部。研究对象包括 39 名经 MRI 扫描初步评估为超高风险精神病（UHR-P）且随后转为精神病的个体；39 名匹配的超高风险未转精神病个体（UHR-NP）；和 39 名匹配的健康对照者。所有受试者均未使用过神经安定剂。在调整 CNV 与脑容量（ICV）后，进行单变量方差分析和重复测量方差分析，以检查 CNV 与精神病发作的相关性以及精神病家族史。采用 Pearson 相关系数来研究精神病理评分与 CNV 的关系。UHR 个体与健康对照组之间的 CNV 无显著差异，且转精神病与未转精神病个体之间也无显著差异。在 UHR 组中，精神病家族史与 CNV 无关。CNV 与精神分裂症阳性或阴性症状均无相关性。较大的 CNV 与空间工作记忆任务错误增加有关，但与言语流畅性表现较好有关。这些数据表明，尾状核在发病前宏观上是正常的，而与执行功能任务的关系可能表明尾状核及其与前额叶区域的连接存在问题。未来的研究应该评估与前额叶皮层连接的尾状核亚区的形状变化，以评估其与执行功能的关系。
