Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, Genes, Cognition, and Psychosis Program, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2012 Jan;37(2):499-507. doi: 10.1038/npp.2011.215. Epub 2011 Sep 28.
The purpose of this study was to examine measures of anatomical connectivity between the thalamus and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in schizophrenia and to assess their functional implications. We measured thalamocortical connectivity with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and probabilistic tractography in 15 patients with schizophrenia and 22 age- and sex-matched controls. The relationship between thalamocortical connectivity and prefrontal cortical blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional activity as well as behavioral performance during working memory was examined in a subsample of 9 patients and 18 controls. Compared with controls, schizophrenia patients showed reduced total connectivity of the thalamus to only one of six cortical regions, the LPFC. The size of the thalamic region with at least 25% of model fibers reaching the LPFC was also reduced in patients compared with controls. The total thalamocortical connectivity to the LPFC predicted working memory task performance and also correlated with LPFC BOLD activation. Notably, the correlation with BOLD activation was accentuated in patients as compared with controls in the ventral LPFC. These results suggest that thalamocortical connectivity to the LPFC is altered in schizophrenia with functional consequences on working memory processing in LPFC.
这项研究的目的是检验精神分裂症患者丘脑与外侧前额叶皮层（LPFC）之间解剖连接的测量方法，并评估其功能意义。我们使用扩散张量成像（DTI）和概率追踪技术测量了 15 名精神分裂症患者和 22 名年龄和性别匹配的对照组的丘脑皮质连接。在一个由 9 名患者和 18 名对照组组成的亚组中，我们检查了丘脑皮质连接与前额叶皮质血氧水平依赖（BOLD）功能活动以及工作记忆期间的行为表现之间的关系。与对照组相比，精神分裂症患者的丘脑与六个皮质区域中的一个（LPFC）的总连接减少。与对照组相比，患者的丘脑区域也减少了至少有 25%的模型纤维到达 LPFC 的区域。LPFC 的总丘脑皮质连接预测了工作记忆任务的表现，并且与 LPFC 的 BOLD 激活相关。值得注意的是，与对照组相比，患者的 BOLD 激活的相关性在 LPFC 的腹侧更为明显。这些结果表明，精神分裂症患者的 LPFC 丘脑皮质连接发生改变，对 LPFC 的工作记忆处理有功能影响。
