The amygdala in schizophrenia: a trimodal magnetic resonance imaging study

Kalus, P; Slotboom, J; Gallinat, J; Wiest, R; Ozdoba, C; Federspiel, A; Strik, WK; Buri, C; Schroth, G; Kiefer, C (2005). The amygdala in schizophrenia: a trimodal magnetic resonance imaging study. Neuroscience letters, 375(3), pp. 151-6. Amsterdam: Elsevier 10.1016/j.neulet.2004.11.004

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In schizophrenic psychoses, structural and functional alterations of the amygdala have been demonstrated by several neuroimaging studies. However, postmortem examinations on the brains of schizophrenics did not confirm the volume changes reported by volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. In order to address these contradictory findings and to further elucidate the possibly underlying pathophysiological process of the amygdala, we employed a trimodal MRI design including high-resolution volumetry, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and quantitative magnetization transfer imaging (qMTI) in a sample of 14 schizophrenic patients and 14 matched controls. Three-dimensional MRI volumetry revealed a significant reduction of amygdala raw volumes in the patient group, while amygdala volumes normalized for intracranial volume did not differ between the two groups. The regional diffusional anisotropy of the amygdala, expressed as inter-voxel coherence (COH), showed a marked and significant reduction in schizophrenics. Assessment of qMTI parameters yielded significant group differences for the T2 time of the bound proton pool and the T1 time of the free proton pool, while the semi-quantitative magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) did not differ between the groups. The application of multimodal MRI protocols is diagnostically relevant for the differentiation between schizophrenic patients and controls and provides a new strategy for the detection and characterization of subtle structural alterations in defined regions of the living brain.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Psychiatric Neurophysiology [discontinued]
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Management
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Endocrinology (DFKE) > Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Clinical Nutrition

UniBE Contributor:

Federspiel, Andrea, Strik, Werner, Buri, Caroline

ISSN:

0304-3940

ISBN:

15694250

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:55

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:17

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.neulet.2004.11.004

PubMed ID:

15694250

Web of Science ID:

000227151700003

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/23318 (FactScience: 41282)

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