Institute of Clinical Medicine, Psychiatry Section, University of Oslo, Norway.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Jun 1;35(4):1122-30. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2011.03.014. Epub 2011 Mar 30.
Similar patterns of subcortical brain abnormalities and neurocognitive dysfunction have been demonstrated in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with more extensive findings in schizophrenia. It is unknown whether relationships between subcortical volumes and neurocognitive performance are similar or different between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
MRI scans and neuropsychological test performance were obtained from 117 schizophrenia or 121 bipolar spectrum disorder patients and 192 healthy control subjects. Using the FreeSurfer software, volumes of 18 selected subcortical structures were automatically segmented and analyzed for relationships with results from 7 neurocognitive tests.
In schizophrenia, larger left ventricular volumes were related to poorer motor speed, and bilateral putamen volumes were related to poorer verbal learning, executive functioning and working memory performance. In bipolar disorder, larger left ventricular volumes were related to poorer motor speed and executive functioning. The relationship between left putamen volume and working memory was specific to schizophrenia. The relationships between left inferior lateral ventricles and motor speed and between right putamen volumes and executive functioning were similar in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and different from healthy controls. The results remained significant after corrections for use of antipsychotic medication. Significant structure-function relationships were also found when all subjects were combined into one group.
The present findings suggest that there are differences as well as similarities in subcortical structure/function relationships between patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and healthy individuals. The observed differences further suggest that ventricular and putamen volume sizes may reflect severity of cognitive dysfunction in these disorders.
精神分裂症和双相情感障碍存在类似的皮质下脑区异常和神经认知功能障碍模式，而精神分裂症的异常更为广泛。目前尚不清楚皮质下体积与神经认知表现之间的关系在精神分裂症和双相情感障碍患者中是否相似或不同。
对 117 例精神分裂症或 121 例双相谱系障碍患者以及 192 名健康对照者进行了 MRI 扫描和神经心理学测试。使用 FreeSurfer 软件自动分割和分析 18 个选定的皮质下结构的体积，并与 7 项神经认知测试的结果进行了相关性分析。
在精神分裂症中，左侧脑室体积较大与运动速度较差相关，双侧壳核体积较大与言语学习、执行功能和工作记忆表现较差相关。在双相情感障碍中，左侧脑室体积较大与运动速度和执行功能较差相关。左侧壳核体积与工作记忆之间的关系在精神分裂症中是特异性的。左侧外侧下脑室与运动速度以及右侧壳核体积与执行功能之间的关系在精神分裂症和双相情感障碍中相似，与健康对照组不同。在对使用抗精神病药物进行校正后，这些结果仍然具有统计学意义。当将所有受试者合并为一组时，也发现了显著的结构-功能关系。
本研究结果表明，精神分裂症或双相情感障碍患者与健康个体之间的皮质下结构/功能关系存在差异和相似之处。观察到的差异进一步表明，脑室和壳核体积大小可能反映了这些疾病中认知功能障碍的严重程度。
