Reduced anterior cingulate gyrus volume correlates with executive dysfunction in men with first-episode schizophrenia

Szeszko, Philip R.; Bilder, Robert M.; Lencz, Todd; Ashtari, Manzar; Goldman, Robert S.; Reiter, Gail; Wu, Houwei; Lieberman, Jeffrey A.

« PreviousSchizophrenia Research
Volume 43, Issue 2 , Pages 97-108, 16 June 2000

Reduced anterior cingulate gyrus volume correlates with executive dysfunction in men with first-episode schizophrenia☆

Philip R. Szeszko
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-718-470-8489; fax: +1-718-343-1659
Robert M. Bilder
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
- Center for Advanced Brain Imaging, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA
Todd Lencz
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
Manzar Ashtari
- Department of Radiology, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New Hyde Park, NY 11040, USA
Robert S. Goldman
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
Gail Reiter
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
Houwei Wu
- Department of Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
Jeffrey A. Lieberman
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

Received 12 January 1999; accepted 16 July 1999.

Abstract

Although frontal lobe structural and functional abnormalities have been identified in schizophrenia, their relationship remains elusive. Because the frontal lobes are both structurally and functionally heterogeneous, it is possible that some measures of frontal lobe structure may not have accurately identified relevant frontal lobe subregions. The authors hypothesized that the volumes of two dorsal, ‘archicortical’ subregions (i.e. superior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus), but not a ventral, ‘paleocortical’ subregion (i.e. orbital frontal region) would be significantly and selectively correlated with executive and motor dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia as previously reported for the anterior hippocampal region. Volumes of these frontal lobe subregions were measured from magnetic resonance images based on sulcal anatomy in 20 men and 15 women with first-episode schizophrenia. All patients completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery while clinically stabilized that encompassed six domains of functioning: attention, executive, motor, visuospatial, memory and language. Findings indicated that reduced anterior cingulate gyrus volume was significantly correlated with worse executive functioning in men; among women, there were no significant correlations. Among men, anterior cingulate gyrus volume was significantly more strongly correlated with executive functioning than with attention, visuospatial, memory, language and general intellectual functioning. Neither executive nor motor functioning was significantly more strongly correlated with the dorsal ‘archicortical’ volumes than with orbital frontal volume. These findings suggest a link between executive deficits and dysfunction of the dorsal ‘archicortical’ system and implicate sex differences in their relationship in first-episode schizophrenia.

Keywords: Anterior cingulate gyrus volume, Executive dysfunction, First-episode schizophrenia