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Authors Yan J, Cui Y, Li Q, Tian L, Liu B, Jiang T, Zhang D, Yan H
Received 19 November 2018
Accepted for publication 1 March 2019
Published 12 April 2019 Volume 2019:15 Pages 935—946
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S195134
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single-blind
Peer reviewers approved by Dr Colin Mak
Peer reviewer comments 3
Editor who approved publication: Dr Yu-Ping Ning
Background: Schizophrenia
is a neurodevelopmental disorder with high heritability. Widespread
cortical thinning has been identified in schizophrenia, suggesting that it is a
result of cortical development deficit. However, the findings of other cortical
morphological indexes of patients are inconsistent, and the research on their
relationship with genetic risk factors for schizophrenia is rare.
Methods: In order
to investigate cortical morphology deficits and their disease-related genetic
liability in schizophrenia, we analyzed a sample of 33 patients with
schizophrenia, 60 biological parents of the patients, as well as 30 young
controls for patients and 28 elderly controls for parents with age, sex and
education level being well-matched. We calculated vertex-wise measurements of
cortical thickness, surface area, local gyrification index, sulcal depth, and
their correlation with the clinical and cognitive characteristics.
Results: Widespread
cortical thinning of the fronto-temporo-parietal region, sulcal flattening of
the insula and gyrification reduction of the frontal cortex were observed in
schizophrenia patients. Conjunction analysis revealed that patients with
schizophrenia and their parents shared significant cortical thinning of
bilateral prefrontal and insula, left lateral occipital and fusiform regions
(Monte Carlo correction, P <0.05), as well as a trend-level sulcal depth
reduction mainly in bilateral insula and occipital cortex. We observed
comprehensive cognitive deficits in patients and similar impairment in the
speed of processing of their unaffected parents. Significant associations
between lower processing speed and thinning of the frontal cortex and
flattening of the parahippocampal gyrus were found in patients and their
parents, respectively. However, no significant correlation between abnormal
measurements of cortical morphology and clinical characteristics was found.
Conclusion: The
results suggest that cortical morphology may be susceptible to a genetic risk
of schizophrenia and could underlie the cognitive dysfunction in patients and their
unaffected relatives. The abnormalities shared with unaffected parents allow us
to better understand the disease-specific genetic effect on cortical
development.
Keywords: schizophrenia,
first-degree relatives, cortical thickness, sulcus depth, insula, speed of
processing