Miswiring of Frontostriatal Projections in Schizophrenia

James J. Levitt, Paul G. Nestor, Marek Kubicki, Amanda E. Lyall, Fan Zhang, Tammy Riklin-Raviv, Lauren J. O'Donnell, Robert W. McCarley, Martha E. Shenton, Yogesh Rathi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigated brain wiring in chronic schizophrenia and healthy controls in frontostriatal circuits using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging tractography in a novel way. We extracted diffusion streamlines in 27 chronic schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls connecting 4 frontal subregions to the striatum. We labeled the projection zone striatal surface voxels into 2 subtypes: dominant-input from a single cortical subregion, and, functionally integrative, with mixed-input from diverse cortical subregions. We showed: 1) a group difference for total striatal surface voxel number (P = .045) driven by fewer mixed-input voxels in the left (P = .007), but not right, hemisphere; 2) a group by hemisphere interaction for the ratio quotient between voxel subtypes (P = .04) with a left (P = .006), but not right, hemisphere increase in schizophrenia, also reflecting fewer mixed-input voxels; and 3) fewer mixed-input voxel counts in schizophrenia (P = .045) driven by differences in left hemisphere limbic (P = .007) and associative (P = .01), but not sensorimotor, striatum. These results demonstrate a less integrative pattern of frontostriatal structural connectivity in chronic schizophrenia. A diminished integrative pattern yields a less complex input pattern to the striatum from the cortex with less circuit integration at the level of the striatum. Further, as brain wiring occurs during early development, aberrant brain wiring could serve as a developmental biomarker for schizophrenia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)990-998
Number of pages9
JournalSchizophrenia Bulletin
Volume46
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Jan 2020

Keywords

  • Brain wiring
  • Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging
  • Prefrontal cortex
  • Schizophrenia
  • Striatum
  • Tractography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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