Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2012 Oct;13(7):544-9. doi: 10.3109/15622975.2011.559269. Epub 2011 Oct 24.
Schizophrenia is associated with replicable grey matter volume reductions in fronto-temporo-limbic and subcortical regions. Psychometric schizotypy refers to a set of behavioural traits and cognitions thought to represent the subclinical manifestation of schizophrenia in the general population. While there is evidence of a continuum between schizophrenia and schizotypy at phenotypic, genetic and cognitive levels, no previous study has observed grey matter volume reductions associated with increased psychometric schizotypy levels in healthy individuals. Such evidence would provide further support for a relationship between non-clinical schizophrenia-like traits in the general population and the full-blown clinical condition of schizophrenia.
We used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the relationship between psychometric schizotypy and brain structure in 55 clinically unaffected and unmedicated volunteers. We performed a voxel-based morphometry analysis of grey matter volume data obtained at 1.5 Tesla.
Covarying for age and gender, higher scores of self-report positive schizotypy were significantly associated with reduced grey matter volume in medial prefrontal, orbitofrontal, and temporal cortical regions.
These findings show that psychometric schizotypy in healthy individuals is associated with volume reductions in cortical areas known to be altered in schizophrenia, thereby providing neurobiological evidence of a continuum between schizotypy and schizophrenia.
精神分裂症与额颞叶-边缘和皮质下区域的可重复灰质体积减少有关。精神分裂症特质量表指的是一套行为特征和认知，被认为是一般人群中精神分裂症亚临床表现的代表。虽然在表型、遗传和认知水平上有精神分裂症和精神分裂症特质连续体的证据，但以前没有研究观察到与健康个体的精神分裂症特质量表水平升高相关的灰质体积减少。这种证据将进一步支持一般人群中非临床精神分裂症样特征与精神分裂症的全面临床状况之间的关系。
我们使用磁共振成像技术在 55 名临床无影响和未经药物治疗的志愿者中研究了精神分裂症特质量表与大脑结构之间的关系。我们对在 1.5 特斯拉获得的灰质体积数据进行了基于体素的形态学分析。
在协变量年龄和性别后，自我报告的阳性精神分裂症特质量表评分越高，与内侧前额叶、眶额和颞叶皮质区域的灰质体积减少显著相关。
这些发现表明，健康个体的精神分裂症特质量表与已知在精神分裂症中改变的皮质区域的体积减少有关，从而提供了精神分裂症特质和精神分裂症之间连续体的神经生物学证据。
