Portas C M, Goldstein J M, Shenton M E, Hokama H H, Wible C G, Fischer I, Kikinis R, Donnino R, Jolesz F A, McCarley R W
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 1998 May 1;43(9):649-59. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(97)00339-9.
The thalamus, an important subcortical brain region connecting limbic and prefrontal cortices, has a significant role in sensory and cortical processing. Although inconsistently, previous studies have demonstrated neuroanatomical abnormalities in the thalamus of schizophrenic patients.
This structural magnetic resonance imaging study, based on segmentation of contiguous coronal 1.5-mm images, compared thalamic brain volumes of 15 chronic, male schizophrenic patients with 15 normal controls matched on age, sex, handedness, and parental socioeconomic status.
There were no significant differences between patients and controls in thalamic volumes, right or left, adjusted for total brain volume; however, there were significantly different correlations of thalamic volumes with prefrontal white matter and lateral ventricles among patients, but not among controls. Thalamic volumes among patients were also significantly correlated with bizarre behavior, hallucinations, and thought disorder.
Findings suggest that connectivity between thalamic nuclei and prefrontal cortical areas are abnormal in chronic male schizophrenic patients. In addition, ventricular enlargement may be, in part, due to subtle reduction in thalamic volume and/or in volume of thalamocortical and corticothalamic fibers secondary to thalamic abnormalities. Finally, correlations with positive symptomatology underscore the role of the thalamus in gating or filtering of sensory information and coordination of cortical processing.
丘脑是连接边缘系统和前额叶皮质的重要皮质下脑区，在感觉和皮质处理过程中起重要作用。尽管此前的研究结果并不一致，但均显示精神分裂症患者的丘脑存在神经解剖学异常。
本结构磁共振成像研究基于对连续冠状面1.5毫米图像的分割，比较了15名慢性男性精神分裂症患者与15名在年龄、性别、利手和父母社会经济地位方面相匹配的正常对照者的丘脑脑容量。
在根据全脑容量进行调整后，患者与对照者的丘脑体积（右侧或左侧）无显著差异；然而，患者丘脑体积与前额叶白质及侧脑室之间的相关性显著不同于对照者。患者的丘脑体积还与怪异行为、幻觉及思维障碍显著相关。
研究结果表明，慢性男性精神分裂症患者丘脑核与前额叶皮质区域之间的连接异常。此外，脑室扩大可能部分归因于丘脑体积及丘脑皮质和皮质丘脑纤维体积的细微减少，这些减少继发于丘脑异常。最后，与阳性症状的相关性突出了丘脑在感觉信息的门控或过滤以及皮质处理协调方面的作用。
