Global and Temporal Cortical Folding in Patients With Early-Onset Schizophrenia

ObjectiveAdult-onset schizophrenia has repeatedly been associated with disturbances in the temporal lobes and alterations in cortical folding, which are thought to reflect neurodevelopmental impairment. Early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset before 18 years) is considered to involve even more pronounced neurodevelopmental deviance across a wide range of brain structural measures. We hypothesized that overall alteration of cortical folding also applies to EOS, and EOS involves prominent structural aberrations in superior temporal and collateral sulci.MethodMagnetic resonance T1 images of 51 patients with EOS and 59 healthy participants were investigated. A fully automated method was applied to the images to extract, label, and measure the sulcus area in the whole cortex. Cortical folding was assessed by computing global sulcal indices (the ratio between total sulcal area and total outer cortex area) for each hemisphere and local sulcal indices (the ratio between the area of labeled sulcus and total outer cortex area in the corresponding hemisphere) for superior temporal and collateral sulci.ResultsRelative to healthy individuals, patients with EOS had significantly lower global sulcal indices in both hemispheres and a lower local sulcal index in the left collateral sulcus.ConclusionsReduced hemispheric sulcation appears to be a feature of schizophrenia, irrespective of age at onset. Structural aberration involving the left collateral sulcus may contribute to neurobiological substrate of EOS.