Chieh-En Jane Tseng1, Wei-An Wang1,
Yu-Chun Arica Lo2, Yi-Huan Markus Wu3, Chih-Min Liu4,
Hai-Gwo Hwu4, Wen-Yih Isaac Tseng3,5
1Biomedical Imaging & Radiological
Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Institute
of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Center
for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of
Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; 4Department of Psychiatry, National
Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 5Department of Medical
Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
The mirror neuron system (MNS) has been hypothesized to be important in imitation and social cognition. Recent fMRI studies have reported MNS deficits in schizophrenia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the white matter structure between the two areas in which mirror neurons have been identified, namely inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule. As compared with the neurotypicals, patients showed no significant difference in generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) bilaterally. In patients, however, positive correlations were found between the scores of social withdrawal and the GFA bilaterally.
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