Biomedical subjects

Yoshio Hirayasu

Publications and source records attributed to Yoshio Hirayasu.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Progressive decrease of left Heschl gyrus and planum temporale gray matter volume in first-episode schizophrenia: a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND: The Heschl gyrus and planum temporale have crucial roles in auditory perception and language processing. Our previous investigation using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indicated smaller gray matter volumes bilaterally in the Heschl gyrus and in left planum temporale in patients with first-episode schizophrenia but not in patients with first-episode affective psychosis. We sought to determine whether there are progressive decreases in anatomically defined MRI gray matter volumes of the Heschl gyrus and planum temporale in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and also in patients with first-episode affective psychosis. METHODS: At a private psychiatric hospital, we conducted a prospective high spatial resolution MRI study that included initial scans of 28 patients at their first hospitalization (13 with schizophrenia and 15 with affective psychosis, 13 of whom had a manic psychosis) and 22 healthy control subjects. Follow-up scans occurred, on average, 1.5 years after the initial scan. RESULTS: Patients with first-episode schizophrenia showed significant decreases in gray matter volume over time in the left Heschl gyrus (6.9%) and left planum temporale (7.2%) compared with patients with first-episode affective psychosis or control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate a left-biased progressive volume reduction in the Heschl gyrus and planum temporale gray matter in patients with first-episode schizophrenia in contrast to patients with first-episode affective psychosis and control subjects. Schizophrenia but not affective psychosis seems to be characterized by a postonset progression of neocortical gray matter volume loss in the left superior temporal gyrus and thus may not be developmentally fixed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Progressive decrease of left superior temporal gyrus gray matter volume in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Smaller temporal lobe cortical gray matter volumes, including the left superior temporal gyrus, have been reported in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of patients with chronic schizophrenia and, more recently, in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. However, it remains unknown whether there are progressive decreases in temporal lobe cortical gray matter volumes in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and whether similarly progressive volume decreases are present in patients with affective psychosis. METHOD: High-spatial-resolution MRI scans at initial hospitalization and 1.5 years later were obtained from 13 patients with first-episode schizophrenia, 15 patients with first-episode affective psychosis (mainly manic), and 14 healthy comparison subjects. MRI volumes were calculated for gray matter of superior temporal gyrus and for the amygdala-hippocampal complex. RESULTS: Patients with first-episode schizophrenia showed significant decreases in gray matter volume over time in the left superior temporal gyrus compared with patients with first-episode affective psychosis or healthy comparison subjects. This progressive decrease was more pronounced in the posterior portion of the left superior temporal gyrus (mean=9.6%) than in the anterior portions (mean=8.4%). No group differences in the rate of change over time were present in other regions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate a progressive volume reduction of the left posterior superior temporal gyrus gray matter in patients with first-episode schizophrenia but not in patients with first-episode affective psychosis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Association between smaller left posterior superior temporal gyrus volume on magnetic resonance imaging and smaller left temporal P300 amplitude in first-episode schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: In chronic schizophrenia, the P300 is broadly reduced and shows a localized left temporal deficit specifically associated with reduced gray matter volume of the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG). In first-episode patients, a similar left temporal P300 deficit is present in schizophrenia, but not in affective psychosis. The present study investigated whether the left temporal P300-left posterior STG volume association is selectively present in first-episode schizophrenia. METHOD: P300 was recorded as first-episode subjects with schizophrenia (n = 15) or affective psychosis (n = 18) or control subjects (n = 18) silently counted infrequent target tones amid standard tones. High-resolution spoiled gradient-recalled acquisition magnetic resonance images provided quantitative measures of temporal lobe gray matter regions of interest. RESULTS: Patients with first-episode schizophrenia displayed a reversed P300 temporal area asymmetry (smaller on the left), while magnetic resonance imaging showed smaller gray matter volumes of left posterior STG relative to control subjects and patients with affective psychosis (15.4% and 11.0%, respectively), smaller gray matter volumes of left planum temporale (21.0% relative to both), and a smaller total Heschl's gyrus volume (14.6% and 21.1%, respectively). Left posterior STG and the left planum temporale, but not other regions of interest, were specifically and positively correlated (r>0.5) with left temporal P300 voltage in patients with schizophrenia but not in patients with affective psychosis or in control subjects. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the left temporal P300 abnormality specifically associated with left posterior STG gray matter volume reduction is present at the first hospitalization for schizophrenia but is not present at the first hospitalization for affective psychosis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Disruption of neural systems of visual attention in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia show attention deficits. The frontal P2a and posterior N2b event-related potential components are early indices of activity in neural systems supporting attention and they are reduced in schizophrenia in auditory tasks. However, the auditory P300 is reduced as well. Thus, the P2a and N2b reductions may simply reflect a general event-related potential amplitude reduction. The visual P300, however, is often spared in schizophrenia. If neural systems supporting attention are specifically disrupted in schizophrenia, the attention-sensitive P2a and N2b should be differentially reduced in patients, compared with the P300, in a visual attention task. METHODS: We analyzed 64-channel event-related potentials from 14 schizophrenic patients and 14 control subjects in a visual object-spatial attention task. We examined the amplitude of the P2a, N2b, and P300 components in the target minus standard difference wave to see if there was a differential reduction of the P2a and N2b compared with the P300. RESULTS: Both the P2a and N2b waveforms were reduced in the patient group (81% [control mean, 1.99 microV; patient mean, 0.38 microV] and 95% [control mean, 0.55 microV; patient mean, 0.03 microV], respectively) while the P300 was not reduced. Measured at the peak of the frontal P2a, the N2b was larger dorsally in the spatial task and larger ventrally in the object task in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The spatial distribution of the P2a and N2b was consistent with activity in the prefrontal cortex and modality-specific posterior cortex, respectively. The differential reduction of the P2a and N2b waveforms supports the hypothesis of specific disruption in neural systems of visual attention in schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Shape differences in the corpus callosum in first-episode schizophrenia and first-episode psychotic affective disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The corpus callosum, the largest white matter tract in the brain, is a midline structure associated with the formation of the hippocampus, septum pellucidum, and cingulate cortex, which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Corpus callosum shape deformation, therefore, may reflect a midline neurodevelopmental abnormality. METHOD: Corpus callosum area and shape were analyzed in 14 first-episode psychotic patients with schizophrenia, 19 first-episode psychotic patients with affective disorder, and 18 normal comparison subjects. RESULTS: No statistically significant corpus callosum area differences between groups were found, but there were differences in the structure's shape between the patients with schizophrenia and the comparison subjects. A correlation between width and angle of the corpus callosum was found in patients with affective disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Corpus callosum shape abnormalities in first-episode psychotic patients with schizophrenia may reflect a midline neurodevelopmental abnormality.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

MRI study of caudate nucleus volume and its cognitive correlates in neuroleptic-naive patients with schizotypal personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: "Cognitive" circuits anatomically link the frontal lobe to subcortical structures; therefore, pathology in any of the core components of these circuits, such as in the caudate nucleus, may result in neurobehavioral syndromes similar to those of the frontal lobe. Neuroleptic medication, however, affects the size of the caudate nucleus. For this reason, individuals diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder offer an ideal group for the measurement of the caudate nucleus because they may be genetically related to individuals with schizophrenia but do not require neuroleptic treatment because of their less severe symptoms. METHOD: Magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) scans obtained on a 1.5-T magnet with 1.5-mm contiguous slices were used to measure the caudate nucleus and lateral ventricles in 15 right-handed male subjects with schizotypal personality disorder who had no previous neuroleptic exposure and in 14 normal comparison subjects. Subjects were group matched for parental socioeconomic status, handedness, and gender. RESULTS: First, the authors found significantly lower left and right absolute (13.1%, 13.2%) and relative (9.1%, 9.2%) caudate nucleus volumes in never-medicated subjects with schizotypal personality disorder than in normal subjects. Second, they found significant, inverse correlations between caudate nucleus volume and the severity of perseveration in two distinct working memory tasks in these neuroleptic-naive subjects with schizotypal personality disorder. CONCLUSIONS: These data are consistent with the findings of reduced caudate nucleus volume reported in studies of neuroleptic-naive patients experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia and support the association of intrinsic pathology in the caudate nucleus with abnormalities in working memory in the schizophrenia spectrum.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Smaller left Heschl's gyrus volume in patients with schizotypal personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders evince similar genetic, neurotransmitter, neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and structural abnormalities. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown smaller gray matter volume in patients with schizotypal personality disorder than in matched comparison subjects in the left superior temporal gyrus, an area important for language processing. In a further exploration, the authors studied two components of the superior temporal gyrus: Heschl's gyrus and the planum temporale. METHOD: MRI scans were acquired from 21 male, neuroleptic-naive subjects recruited from the community who met DSM-IV criteria for schizotypal personality disorder and 22 male comparison subjects similar in age. Eighteen of the 21 subjects with schizotypal personality disorder had additional comorbid, nonpsychotic diagnoses. The superior temporal gyrus was manually delineated on coronal images with subsequent identification of Heschl's gyrus and the planum temporale. Exploratory correlations between region of interest volumes and neuropsychological measures were also performed. RESULTS: Left Heschl's gyrus gray matter volume was 21% smaller in the schizotypal personality disorder subjects than in the comparison subjects, a difference that was not associated with the presence of comorbid axis I disorders. There were no between-group volume differences in right Heschl's gyrus or in the right or left planum temporale. Exploratory analyses also showed a correlation between poor logical memory and smaller left Heschl's gyrus volume. CONCLUSIONS: Smaller left Heschl's gyrus gray matter volume in subjects with schizotypal personality disorder may help to explain the previously reported abnormality in the left superior temporal gyrus and may be a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Adult↗