Structural Neuroimaging Group, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
J Psychiatr Res. 2012 Apr;46(4):533-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.01.015. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
Minor motor and sensory deficits or neurological soft signs (NSS) are frequently found in patients with schizophrenia at any stage of their illness. The thalamus and basal ganglia are accepted as being important for both motor control and integration of sensory input. However, whether NSS are related to alterations of these brain regions remains controversial.
Twenty patients with recent onset schizophrenia were investigated using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3 Tesla. NSS were examined on the Heidelberg Scale after remission of acute symptoms and related to both volumetric and shape measurements of thalamus, caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus, respectively. Age, education, medication and duration of illness were considered as potential confounders.
NSS were associated with structural alterations predominantly in the thalamus, the left caudate nucleus, and in the right globus pallidus. According to shape analyses these associations referred to regionally specific morphometric alterations rather than to global atrophy of the respective structures.
Our findings provide new insights into the association of NSS with brain morphometric alterations and lend further support to an involvement of multiple subcortical regions in schizophrenia.
在精神分裂症患者的任何疾病阶段，都经常发现轻微的运动和感觉缺陷或神经学软体征（NSS）。丘脑和基底节被认为对运动控制和感觉输入的整合都很重要。然而，NSS 是否与这些脑区的改变有关仍存在争议。
对 20 例处于发病早期的精神分裂症患者进行了 3T 高分辨率磁共振成像（MRI）检查。在急性症状缓解后，使用海德堡量表检查 NSS，并分别与丘脑、尾状核、壳核和苍白球的体积和形状测量值相关。年龄、教育程度、药物治疗和病程被认为是潜在的混杂因素。
NSS 与结构改变主要在丘脑、左侧尾状核和右侧苍白球有关。根据形态分析，这些关联涉及区域特定的形态计量学改变，而不是各自结构的整体萎缩。
我们的发现提供了新的见解，表明 NSS 与脑形态计量学改变有关，并进一步支持了多个皮质下区域在精神分裂症中的参与。
