Cortical Thickness Revealing Cerebral Anatomical Deficits in Drug-Naive First-Episode Schizophrenia

Yuan Xiao¹, Su Lui¹, Li Yao¹, Teng Xie², Yong He², Qiyong Gong¹

Synopsis:Cortical thickness was measured to investigate the anatomical deficit in antipsychotic naive first episode schizophrenia. 128 patients and 141 healthy controls were recruited. We employed CIVET software to extract cortical thickness measurements from T1-weighted MRI images. The cortical thinning, especially, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, may be resulted from neuroprogression in schizophrenia. Cortical thickening in bilateral temporal poles and other cortices were also revealed and may result from the compensatory mechanism or abnormal neurodevelopment at early stage of schizophrenia. In addition, a strong link between PANSS scores and cortical thickness displayed a consensus between cerebral structure and clinical manifestations.