Working memory processing of facial images in schizophrenia: fMRI investigation

Impaired processing of facial information is one of the broad ranges of cognitive deficits seen in patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to elucidate the differences in brain activities involved in the process of facial working memory (images of neutral faces as mnemonic content) between schizophrenic patients and healthy comparison subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Group comparison analysis revealed aberrant activities from the patient group in several cortical areas, including the left fusiform gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyri/insula, and left middle temporal gyrus. A decreased level of activity in the left fusiform gyrus, along with performance reduction, implicates abnormal processing of facial information in schizophrenia.     

Color Stroop and negative priming in schizophrenia: An fMRI study

Disturbances in selective attention represent a core characteristic of schizophrenia, whose neural underpinnings have yet to be fully elucidated. Consequently, we recorded brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while 15 patients with schizophrenia and 15 age-matched controls performed a well-established measure of selective attention—the color Stroop negative priming task. We focused on two aspects of performance: overriding pre-potent responses (Stroop effect) and inhibition of prior negatively primed trials (negative priming effect). Behaviorally, controls demonstrated both significant Stroop and negative priming effects, while schizophrenic subjects only showed the Stroop effect. For the Stroop effect, fMRI indicated significantly greater activation in frontal regions–medial frontal gyrus/anterior cingulate gyrus and middle frontal gyrus for controls–but greater activation in medial parietal regions (posterior cingulate gyrus/precuneus) for patients. Negative priming elicited significant activation in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for both groups, but also in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for patients. These different patterns of fMRI activation may reflect faulty interaction in schizophrenia within networks of brain regions that are vital to selective attention.     

Regional Homogeneity Brain Alterations in Schizophrenia: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis

ObjectiveResting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) provides a lot of evidence for local abnormal brain activity in schizophrenia, but the results are not consistent. Our aim is to find out the consistent abnormal brain regions of the patients with schizophrenia by using regional homogeneity (ReHo), and indirectly understand the degree of brain damage of the patients with drug-naive first episode schizophrenia (Dn-FES) and chronic schizophrenia. MethodsWe performed the experiment by activation likelihood estimation (ALE) software to analysis the differences between people with schizophrenia group (all schizophrenia group and chronic schizophrenia group) and healthy controls. ResultsThirteen functional imaging studies were included in quantitative meta-analysis. All schizophrenia group showed decreased ReHo in bilateral precentral gyrus (PreCG) and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), and increased ReHo in bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and right insula. Chronic schizophrenia group showed decreased ReHo in bilateral MOG, right fusiform gyrus, left PreCG, left cerebellum, right precuneus, left medial frontal gyrus and left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). No significant increased brain areas were found in patients with chronic schizophrenia. ConclusionOur findings suggest that patients with chronic schizophrenia have more extensive brain damage than FES, which may contribute to our understanding of the progressive pathophysiology of schizophrenia.     

以妄想为主的男性精神分裂症患者脑局部一致性的功能磁共振研究

目的：探讨男性偏执型精神分裂症患者在静息状态下是否存在脑功能活动异常及其区域。方法：采用病例一对照研究方法,对20例以妄想为主的男性精神分裂症患者（患者组）和20名性别、年龄、受教育程度相匹配的正常对照者（正常对照组）进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描,分析静息状态下各脑区的局部一致性（regionalhomogeneity,ReHo）的差异。结果：设P〈0．05、体素范围（k值）≥85,与正常对照组比较,患者组双侧额上回、双侧颞中回、左额中回、左中央前回、左小脑脚和右扣带回局部一致性（ReHo值）减低,右颞上回和左颞下回ReHo值增高,而左梭状回ReHo值既有增高也有减低。结论：以妄想为主的男性精神分裂症患者在静息状态下可能存在广泛分布的脑区功能异常。     

Brain dysfunctions during facial discrimination in schizophrenia: Selective association to affect decoding

Schizophrenia patients exhibit impaired facial affect perception, yet the exact nature of this impairment remains unclear. We investigated neural activity related to processing facial emotional and non-emotional information and complex images in 12 schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging. All subjects performed a facial information processing task with three conditions: matching facial emotion, matching facial identity, and matching complex visual patterns. Patients and controls showed comparable behavioral performance in all task conditions. The neural activation patterns in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls were distinctly different while processing affect-related facial information but not other non-emotional facial features. During emotion matching, orbital frontal cortex and left amydala activations were found in controls but not in patients. When comparing emotion versus identity matching, controls activated the fusiform and middle temporal gyri, left superior temporal gyrus, and right inferior and middle frontal gyrus, whereas schizophrenia patients only activated the middle and inferior frontal gyri, the frontal operculi and the right insular cortex. Our findings suggest that schizophrenia patients and healthy controls may utilize different neural networks when processing facial emotional information.     

Application of diffusion tensor imaging for detecting structural changes in the brain of schizophrenic patients

Abstract

Objective. Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric illness. Although magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used for detecting brain structural and functional abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia, the findings are highly inconsistent between reports. This study investigates structural changes in the brains of schizophrenic patients. Methods. The brains of fifty male adults with schizophrenia and fifty age- and gender-matched healthy controls were scanned by diffusion tensor imaging. The differences in fractional anisotropy （FA） values between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls were analyzed. Results. Schizophrenic patients exhibited significantly decreased FA values in the right middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus, left sub-temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left cingulate gyrus, and left precentral gyrus compared with the control group. We did not find any brain regions with higher FA values in the patient group than in the control group. Conclusion. This study suggested that structural abnormalities in the frontal region of gray matter and white matter are present at the same time in patients with schizophrenia.     

Electrophysiological basis for the ability of olanzapine to improve verbal memory and functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia: a LORETA analysis of P300

Abnormality of P300 waveforms of event-related potentials (ERPs) has been suggested to represent an aspect of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Previous work points to the contribution of altered neural function in discrete brain regions in the left hemisphere to psychotic symptoms and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. In this study, we sought to determine: 1) if patients with schizophrenia elicit a decreased P300 current source density in brain areas, such as the superior temporal gyrus (STG); 2) if decreased P300 generator density in the left STG is recovered by treatment with the most widely-used antipsychotic drug olanzapine; and 3) if the recovery of P300 source density is associated with improvements of cognitive and functional status. P300 in response to an auditory oddball task, as well as verbal learning memory, psychopathology, and quality of life were evaluated in 16 right-handed patients with schizophrenia before and after treatment with olanzapine for 6 months. ERP data were also obtained from 16 right-handed age and gender-matched normal volunteers. Low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) analysis was used to obtain current density images of P300. Patients with schizophrenia showed significantly smaller LORETA values in several brain regions in the left side, particularly STG, middle frontal gyrus, and precentral gyrus, compared with control subjects. Six-month treatment with olanzapine significantly increased P300 source density only in the left STG. Positive symptoms, negative symptoms, verbal learning memory, and quality of life were also improved during treatment. Significant correlations were found between the increase in LORETA values of left STG vs. improvements of negative symptoms, as measured by Scale for the Assessment of the Negative Symptoms, and verbal learning memory, as measured by the Japanese Verbal Learning Test. Improvement of quality of life, as evaluated by the Quality of Life Scale, were significantly associated with an increase in LORETA values of middle frontal gyrus, and tended to correlate with that of precentral gyrus. The results of this study suggest that changes in cortical activity, as measured by ERPs, are responsible for the ability of some antipsychotic drugs to improve cognition and functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia.     

Neural integration of speech and gesture in schizophrenia: Evidence for differential processing of metaphoric gestures

Gestures are an important component of interpersonal communication. Especially, complex multimodal communication is assumed to be disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. In healthy subjects, differential neural integration processes for gestures in the context of concrete [iconic (IC) gestures] and abstract sentence contents [metaphoric (MP) gestures] had been demonstrated. With this study we wanted to investigate neural integration processes for both gesture types in patients with schizophrenia. During functional magnetic resonance imaging‐data acquisition, 16 patients with schizophrenia (P) and a healthy control group (C) were shown videos of an actor performing IC and MP gestures and associated sentences. An isolated gesture (G) and isolated sentence condition (S) were included to separate unimodal from bimodal effects at the neural level. During IC conditions (IC > G ∩ IC > S) we found increased activity in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) in both groups. Whereas in the control group the left pMTG and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were activated for the MP conditions (MP > G ∩ MP > S), no significant activation was found for the identical contrast in patients. The interaction of group (P/C) and gesture condition (MP/IC) revealed activation in the bilateral hippocampus, the left middle/superior temporal and IFG. Activation of the pMTG for the IC condition in both groups indicates intact neural integration of IC gestures in schizophrenia. However, failure to activate the left pMTG and IFG for MP co‐verbal gestures suggests a disturbed integration of gestures embedded in an abstract sentence context. This study provides new insight into the neural integration of co‐verbal gestures in patients with schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Brain‐wide association study of DISC1 genetic variants reveals a relationship with the structure and functional connectivity of the precuneus in schizophrenia

The Disrupted in Schizophrenia Gene 1 (DISC1) plays a role in both neural signaling and development and is associated with schizophrenia, although its links to altered brain structure and function in this disorder are not fully established. Here we have used structural and functional MRI to investigate links with six DISC1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We employed a brain‐wide association analysis (BWAS) together with a Jacknife internal validation approach in 46 schizophrenia patients and 24 matched healthy control subjects. Results from structural MRI showed significant associations between all six DISC1 variants and gray matter volume in the precuneus, post‐central gyrus and middle cingulate gyrus. Associations with specific SNPs were found for rs2738880 in the left precuneus and right post‐central gyrus, and rs1535530 in the right precuneus and middle cingulate gyrus. Using regions showing structural associations as seeds a resting‐state functional connectivity analysis revealed significant associations between all 6 SNPS and connectivity between the right precuneus and inferior frontal gyrus. The connection between the right precuneus and inferior frontal gyrus was also specifically associated with rs821617. Importantly schizophrenia patients showed positive correlations between the six DISC‐1 SNPs associated gray matter volume in the left precuneus and right post‐central gyrus and negative symptom severity. No correlations with illness duration were found. Our results provide the first evidence suggesting a key role for structural and functional connectivity associations between DISC1 polymorphisms and the precuneus in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5414–5430, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Morphometric Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia in a Population-Based Sample: Relationship to Duration of Illness

Biased recruitment and sample selection may cause variability in neuroimaging studies. Epidemiologically principled population-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of schizophrenia are very rare. We gathered structural MRI data on 154 subjects from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, aged 33–35 (100 controls, 54 schizophrenia patients). Regional differences in density of gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were identified between groups using nonparametric statistical analysis, and the relationship of the regional differences to duration of illness was explored. Gray matter reductions were found bilaterally in the cerebellum, thalamus, basal ganglia, middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, insula, superior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, cuneus, and lingual gyrus; in the left posterior cingulate, superior frontal gyrus, transverse temporal gyrus, and precuneus; and in the right postcentral gyrus. Gray matter excesses were observed bilaterally in the basal ganglia, anterior cingulate, and medial orbitofrontal cortices. There were white matter deficits in an extensive network including inter- and intrahemispheric tracts bilaterally in the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, subcortical structures, cerebellum, and brain stem. CSF excesses were found bilaterally in the lateral ventricles, third ventricle, interhemispheric, and left Sylvian fissure. We replicated the previous findings of structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia on a general population level. Gray and white matter deficits were associated with duration of illness suggesting either that developmental brain deficits relate to an earlier age of onset or that brain abnormalities in schizophrenia are progressive in nature.     

Altered Amygdala Connectivity Within the Social Brain in Schizophrenia

Background: Impairments in social cognition have been described in schizophrenia and relate to core symptoms of the disorder. Social cognition is subserved by a network of brain regions, many of which have been implicated in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that deficits in connectivity between components of this social brain network may underlie the social cognition impairments seen in the disorder. Methods: We investigated brain activation and connectivity in a group of individuals with schizophrenia making social judgments of approachability from faces (n = 20), compared with a group of matched healthy volunteers (n = 24), using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Effective connectivity from the amygdala was estimated using the psychophysiological interaction approach. Results: While making approachability judgments, healthy participants recruited a network of social brain regions including amygdala, fusiform gyrus, cerebellum, and inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally and left medial prefrontal cortex. During the approachability task, healthy participants showed increased connectivity from the amygdala to the fusiform gyri, cerebellum, and left superior frontal cortex. In comparison to controls, individuals with schizophrenia overactivated the right middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and precuneus and had reduced connectivity between the amygdala and the insula cortex. Discussion: We report increased activation of frontal and medial parietal regions during social judgment in patients with schizophrenia, accompanied by decreased connectivity between the amygdala and insula. We suggest that the increased activation of frontal control systems and association cortex may reflect a compensatory mechanism for impaired connectivity of the amygdala with other parts of the social brain networks in schizophrenia.Key words: fMRI, social cognition, approachability, psychosis, neural, psychophysiological interaction     

男性偏执型精神分裂症患者静息态功能磁共振脑自发低频振幅的变化

目的:利用静息态功能性磁共振成像(fMRI)技术观察男性偏执型精神分裂症患者脑自发低频振幅(ALFF)的变化。方法:对36例男性偏执型精神分裂症患者(病例组)和19名年龄、利手、性别、受教育程度相匹配的健康者(对照组)进行静息态fMRI扫描;分析两组全脑各区域ALFF的差异。结果:与对照组比较,病例组双侧额中回、右颞中回、右顶下回、左中央前回ALFF明显减低;右颞上回、双侧颞下回、左枕下回ALFF明显增强(P均0.01)。结论:男性偏执型精神分裂症患者脑部广泛区域存在ALFF异常。     

Resting quantitative cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia measured by pulsed arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion MRI is a relatively novel technique that can allow for quantitative measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF) by using magnetically labeled arterial blood water as an endogenous tracer. Available data on resting CBF in schizophrenia primarily come from invasive and expensive nuclear medicine techniques that are often limited to small samples and yield mixed results. The noninvasive nature of ASL offers promise for larger-scale studies. The utility of this approach was examined in 24 healthy controls and 30 patients with schizophrenia. Differences between groups in quantitative CBF were assessed, as were relationships between CBF and psychiatric symptoms. Group comparisons demonstrated greater CBF for controls in several regions including bilateral precuneus and middle frontal gyrus. Patients showed increased CBF in left putamen/superior corona radiata and right middle temporal gyrus. For patients, greater severity of negative symptoms was associated with reduced CBF in bilateral superior temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus. Increased severity of positive symptoms was related to both higher CBF in cingulate gyrus and superior frontal gyrus and decreased CBF in precentral gyrus/middle frontal gyrus. These findings support the feasibility and utility of implementing ASL in schizophrenia research and expand upon previous results.     

~(18)F-FDG PET显像观察特发性快眼动睡眠期行为障碍患者脑葡萄糖代谢特点的研究

目的探讨~(18)F-FDG PET显像观察特发性快眼动睡眠期行为障碍(iRBD)患者脑葡萄糖代谢改变和iRBD脑葡萄糖代谢改变与病程间的相关性。方法纳入多导睡眠监测(PSG)确诊的iRBD患者20例(iRBD组)和年龄、性别匹配的健康对照者19例(对照组)。两组均行~(18)F-FDG PET脑显像。基于自动解剖标记模板将大脑划分为90个左右对称的脑区,计算各脑区葡萄糖代谢半定量值。对iRBD组和对照组各脑区葡萄糖代谢半定量值进行独立样本t检验;并对iRBD组脑葡萄糖代谢改变与病程行Pearson相关分析。结果 (1)与对照组比较,iRBD组的双侧背外侧额上回、双侧眶部额上回、双侧眶部额中回、双侧海马、双侧海马旁回、双侧杏仁核、左侧眶部额下回、左侧岛叶、左侧内侧与旁扣带脑回、左侧中央旁小叶、左侧苍白球的葡萄糖代谢半定量值均增高(P0.05);双侧距状裂周围皮质、双侧楔叶、双侧舌回、双侧枕上回、双侧枕中回、双侧枕下回、双侧角回、双侧颞上回、双侧颞中回、右侧颞横回的葡萄糖代谢半定量值均降低(P0.05)。Pearson相关分析结果,iRBD组双侧杏仁核、双侧颞上回、右侧楔叶、右侧枕上回、右侧颞横回、左侧海马、左侧颞中回的葡萄糖代谢半定量值与病程呈正相关(P0.05);而双侧眶部额上回、双侧眶部额中回、左侧中央旁小叶、左侧眶部额下回、左侧内侧和旁扣带回、右侧背外侧额上回、右侧海马旁回的葡萄糖代谢半定量值与病程呈负相关(P0.05)。结论 iRBD患者脑内存在疾病相关的葡萄糖代谢水平改变,有助于客观评估iRBD病情的变化。     

Increased levels of expression of an NMDARI splice variant in the superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenia

Expression patterns of mRNAs for the NMDARI subunit (NRI) carboxy-terminus isoforms were investigated in postmortem brain tissue using isotopic in situ hybridization. Three brain regions (superior temporal, middle frontal and visual cortices) were examined in patients with schizophrenia (n = 6) and control subjects (n = 6). A 22% higher level of expression of the NRI isoform that contains neither spliced exon was observed in the superior temporal gyrus of patients with schizophrenia compared with controls (p = 0.01). No differences were observed in the expression of the other isoforms in the three regions studied. These data suggest that NRI alternative splicing might be abnormal in schizophrenia and reinforce previous findings implicating the superior temporal gyrus as a site of neural dysfunction in schizophrenia.     

Structural brain differences in patients with schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder demonstrated by voxel–based morphometry

Brain abnormalities of schizophrenia probably consist of deviation related to the vulnerability and pathological changes in association with overt psychosis. We conducted a cross–sectional comparison in brain morphology between patients with overt schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder, a schizophrenia–spectrum disorder without florid psychotic episode. Voxelbased morphometry was applied to assess gray matter volume in 25 patients with schizophrenia, 25 patients with schizotypal disorder, and 50 healthy control subjects. In comparison with controls, schizophrenia patients showed gray matter reductions in the bilateral medial frontal, inferior frontal, medial temporal, and septal regions, and the left middle frontal, orbitofrontal, insula, and superior temporal regions, and an increased gray matter in the left basal ganglia. Schizotypal disorder patients showed reductions in the left inferior frontal, insula, superior temporal, and medial temporal regions. There was a significant reduction in the left orbitofrontal region of schizophrenia compared with schizotypal disorder. Gray matter reductions that are common to both patient groups such as those in the left medial temporal and inferior frontal regions may represent vulnerability to schizophrenia, and additional involvement of several frontal regions may be crucial to florid psychosis.     

帕金森病伴冻结步态患者的静息态磁共振研究

目的 探讨帕金森病患者冻结步态与静息态脑功能成像之间的关系。方法 2021年9月-2022年9月于襄阳市第一人民医院就诊的28例伴有冻结步态的帕金森病患者以及32例不伴有冻结步态的帕金森病患者接受了全脑结构像和静息状态下的功能磁共振扫描,计算并比较2组全脑百分率振幅(Percent amplitude of fluctuation,PerAF)的差异,同时探寻2组被试者间差异脑区与大脑其他区域功能连接性(Functional connectivity,FC)的不同。结果 在静息状态下与非冻结组比较,冻结组双侧额中回的PerAF信号显著减低,同时冻结组快速动眼期(Rapid eye movement,REM)睡眠行为异常筛查量表得分分别与左侧额中回(r=0.436,P=0.020)和右侧额中回(r=0.453,P=0.015)的显著区域的PerAF信号均呈正相关。此外,右侧脑干与双侧额中回之间的功能连接性增加,且右侧脑干区域与脚桥核部分重合;同时左侧额上回与额中回之间的功能连接性显著增加,且两者之间的FC信号与新冻结步态问卷得分呈显著的负相关(r=-0.510,P=0.006)。结论 冻...     

Atypical Antipsychotics Mediate Dynamics of Intrinsic Brain Activity in Early-Stage Schizophrenia? A Preliminary Study

ObjectiveAbnormalities of static brain activity have been reported in schizophrenia, but it remains to be clarified the temporal variability of intrinsic brain activities in schizophrenia and how atypical antipsychotics affect it. MethodsWe employed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and a sliding-window analysis of dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) to evaluate the dynamic brain activities in schizophrenia (SZ) patients before and after 8-week antipsychotic treatment. Twenty-six schizophrenia individuals and 26 matched healthy controls (HC) were included in this study. ResultsCompared with HC, SZ showed stronger dALFF in the right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.R) at baseline. After medication, the SZ group exhibited reduced dALFF in the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG.R) and increased dALFF in the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG.L), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG.R), and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL.R). Dynamic ALFF in IPL.R was found to significant negative correlate with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) scores at baseline. ConclusionOur results showed dynamic intrinsic brain activities altered in schizophrenia after short term antipsychotic treatment. The findings of this study support and expand the application of dALFF method in the study of the pathological mechanism in psychosis in the future.     

Volume reduction of the left planum temporale gray matter associated with long duration of untreated psychosis in schizophrenia: a preliminary report

A longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in schizophrenia is reported to lead to a poorer clinical outcome, possibly reflecting a neurodegenerative process after the onset of overt psychosis. However, the effect of DUP on brain morphology in schizophrenia is still poorly understood. In this study, we used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the relation between DUP and volumetric measurements for the superior temporal sub-regions (Heschl's gyrus, planum temporale, and caudal superior temporal gyrus), the medial temporal lobe structures (hippocampus and amygdala), and the frontal lobe regions (prefrontal area and anterior cingulate gyrus) in a sample of 38 schizophrenia patients (20 males and 18 females) whose illness duration was less than five years. We found a significant negative correlation between DUP and the volume of gray matter in the left planum temporale even after controlling for age, age at illness onset, and duration and dosage of neuroleptic medication. There was no such correlation for the other brain regions including each sub-region of the prefrontal cortex (the superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and straight gyrus). When subjects were divided into two groups around the median DUP, the long-DUP group had a significantly smaller planum temporale gray matter than the short-DUP group. These findings may reflect a progressive pathological process in the gray matter of the left planum temporale during the initial untreated phase of schizophrenia, whereas abnormalities in the medial temporal regions might be, as has been suggested from previous longitudinal findings, relatively static at least during the early course of the illness.     

Chronic schizophrenia as a brain misconnection syndrome: a white matter voxel-based morphometry study

It has been hypothesized that schizophrenia could be due to a defect of neural circuitry, that is a misconnection between different cerebral areas, particularly those involved in language processing and production. A group of 28 patients with chronic schizophrenia were investigated in order to detect differences in locations of white matter voxel signal intensity in comparison with a control group of 28 normal subjects matched for age, gender and educational level. Voxel-based morphometry was used to assess the white matter of the brain. Significant voxel signal hypointensity was identified in schizophrenic patients bilaterally (mainly in the left hemisphere) in the post-central gyrus and superior temporal gyrus and unilaterally (in the left hemisphere) in the inferior frontal gyrus-pars triangularis and pars pretriangularis, the medial orbital gyrus, the lateral orbital gyrus and the rectus gyrus. Thus, the white matters of these cerebral areas were structurally modified particularly in the left hemisphere and in those structures that control language and hearing processes.