Developmental Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Developmental Neuroimaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Developmental Neuroimaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Medical Image Processing Lab, Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Schizophr Res. 2020 Apr;218:76-84. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.02.005. Epub 2020 Feb 17.
Morphological abnormalities of subcortical structures have been consistently reported along the schizophrenia clinical spectrum, and they may play an important role in the pathophysiology of psychosis. However, the question arises whether these subcortical features are consequences of medication and illness chronicity, or if they contribute to the vulnerability to develop schizophrenia spectrum disorders. If some of the subcortical abnormalities could be evidenced in community adolescents expressing higher schizotypal traits (psychometric schizotypy), they could potentially shed light on vulnerability markers. To date, very few studies have examined the link between psychometric schizotypy and volumes of subcortical regions, and none of them have used a longitudinal design. This study sets out to investigate developmental trajectories of subcortical volumes in 110 community adolescents (12 to 20 years old), for whom MRI-scans were acquired over a period of 5 years, reaching a total of 297 scans. Analyses were conducted using Freesurfer, and schizotypal traits were measured with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Using mixed model regression analyses following a region-of-interest approach, we observed differential linear developmental trajectories in four subcortical structures when comparing higher versus lower scorers on the disorganized schizotypy dimension (bilateral hippocampus, left-lateral ventricle and left-pallidum) and the negative schizotypy dimension (bilateral pallidum, and right-thalamus). All results survived a threshold of p < .05 (FDR-corrected) while covarying for the effect of other psychological problems (externalized and internalized psychopathology). These results indicate that expression of higher levels of negative and disorganized schizotypy during adolescence was associated with neural markers linking schizotypy personality features to schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
皮质下结构的形态学异常沿着精神分裂症临床谱系一直被报道，并且它们可能在精神病的病理生理学中起重要作用。然而，问题是这些皮质下特征是药物和疾病慢性的结果，还是它们导致易患精神分裂症谱系障碍。如果一些皮质下异常可以在表现出更高精神分裂症特质（心理计量学精神分裂症）的社区青少年中得到证明，那么它们可能为易感性标志物提供线索。迄今为止，很少有研究检查心理计量学精神分裂症与皮质下区域体积之间的联系，并且它们都没有使用纵向设计。本研究旨在调查 110 名社区青少年（12 至 20 岁）皮质下体积的发育轨迹，对他们进行了为期 5 年的 MRI 扫描，共获得 297 次扫描。使用 Freesurfer 进行分析，使用精神分裂症人格问卷（SPQ）测量精神分裂症特质。使用混合模型回归分析，采用感兴趣区域方法，当比较在混乱精神分裂症维度（双侧海马体、左侧脑室和左侧苍白球）和阴性精神分裂症维度（双侧苍白球和右侧丘脑）上得分较高者和较低者时，我们观察到四个皮质下结构的差异线性发育轨迹。所有结果在控制其他心理问题（外化和内化精神病理学）的影响时，均通过 p<0.05（FDR 校正）的阈值。这些结果表明，青春期表现出更高水平的阴性和混乱精神分裂症与将精神分裂症人格特征与精神分裂症谱系障碍联系起来的神经标志物相关。
