Grey and white matter abnormalities are associated with impaired spatial working memory ability in first-episode schizophrenia

Cocchi, Luca; Walterfang, Mark; Testa, Renée; Wood, Stephen J.; Seal, Marc L.; Suckling, John; Takahashi, Tsutomu; Proffitt, Tina-Marie; Brewer, Warrick J.; Adamson, Christopher; Soulsby, Bridget; Velakoulis, Dennis; McGorry, Patrick D.; Pantelis, Christos

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2009.09.009

« Previous Next »Schizophrenia Research
Volume 115, Issue 2 , Pages 163-172, December 2009

Grey and white matter abnormalities are associated with impaired spatial working memory ability in first-episode schizophrenia

Luca Cocchi
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
- Corresponding author. Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne, c/o National Neuroscience Facility, 161 Barry Street, Carlton South 3053, Australia. Tel.: +61 3 8344 1861; fax: +61 3 9348 0469.
Mark Walterfang
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
Renée Testa
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
Stephen J. Wood
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
Marc L. Seal
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
John Suckling
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Tsutomu Takahashi
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan
Tina-Marie Proffitt
- ORYGEN Research Centre, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health
Warrick J. Brewer
- ORYGEN Research Centre, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health
Christopher Adamson
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
- Developmental and Functional Brain Imaging, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Bridget Soulsby
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
Dennis Velakoulis
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
Patrick D. McGorry
- ORYGEN Research Centre, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health
Christos Pantelis
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia

Received 2 February 2009; received in revised form 3 August 2009; accepted 7 September 2009. published online 19 October 2009.

Abstract

Spatial working memory (SWM) dysfunction has been suggested as a trait marker of schizophrenia and implicates a diffuse network involving prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices. However, structural abnormalities in both grey and white matter in relation to SWM deficits are largely unexplored. The current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study examined this relationship in a sample of young first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients using a whole-brain voxel-based method.

SWM ability of 21 FES patients and 41 comparable controls was assessed by the CANTAB SWM task. Using an automated morphometric analysis of brain MRI scans, we assessed the relationship between SWM abilities and both grey matter volume and white matter density in both groups.

Our findings demonstrated the different directionality of the association between SWM errors and grey matter volume in left frontal regions and white matter tracts connecting these regions with temporal and occipital areas between FES patients and controls. This suggests that the substrate underpinning the normal variability in SWM function in healthy individuals may be abnormal in FES, and that the normal neurodevelopmental processes that drive the development of SWM networks are disrupted in schizophrenia.

Keywords: Voxel-based morphometry, Working memory, Schizophrenia, Grey matter, White matter, First-episode psychosis, Cognition