Volumetric Measure of the Frontal and Temporal Lobe Regions in Schizophrenia

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Abstract
MAGNETIC resonance (MR) imaging research has shown that schizophrenia is associated with slight decreases in total brain volume,1 modest reductions in brain volume during the course of the illness,2,3 and fairly widespread4-7 or regional (viz, frontal and temporal) decrements in cerebral gray matter volume,8-10 even in first-episode schizophrenic patients.11,12 However, MR imaging findings for cerebral white matter volume in schizophrenia have been mixed. Most studies4-8 have found no differences in white matter volume between schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects, but some have reported white matter reductions in schizophrenia.13-15 Yet, there is additional intriguing evidence of white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia, such as disruption of cerebral white matter connections,16,17 smaller corpus callosum size,18,19 inward displacement of white matter within cerebral laminar architecture,20-22 and patchy reductions in white matter tracts.23