Cortical Gyrification, Psychotic-Like Experiences, and Cognitive Performance in Nonclinical Subjects

Overview

Journal Schizophr Bull

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2020 Jul 22

PMID 32691058

Citations 5

Authors

Ulrika Evermann

Christian Gaser

Bianca Besteher

Kerstin Langbein

Igor Nenadic

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Psychotic-like experiences (PLE) are present in nonclinical populations, yet their association with brain structural variation, especially markers of early neurodevelopment, is poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that cortical surface gyrification, a putative marker of early brain development, is associated with PLE in healthy subjects.

Methods: We analyzed gyrification from 3 Tesla MRI scans (using CAT12 software) and PLE (positive, negative, and depressive symptom dimensions derived from the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences, CAPE) in 103 healthy participants (49 females, mean age 29.13 ± 9.37 years). A subsample of 63 individuals completed tasks from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Controlled Oral Word Association Test. Estimated IQ and a composite neuropsychological score were used to explore mediation pathways via cognition.

Results: Positive PLE distress was negatively associated with gyrification of the left precuneus. PLE depression dimension showed a negative association with gyrification in the right supramarginal and temporal region. There was no significant mediating effect of cognition on these associations.

Conclusion: Our results support a neurobiological psychosis spectrum, for the first time linking an early developmental imaging marker (rather than volume) to dimensional subclinical psychotic symptoms. While schizophrenia risk, neurodevelopment, and cognitive function might share genetic risk factors, additional mediation analyses did not confirm a mediating effect of cognition on the gyrification-psychopathology correlation.

Citing Articles

Psychotic Like Experiences in Healthy Adolescents are Underpinned by Lower Fronto-Temporal Cortical Gyrification: a Study from the IMAGEN Consortium.

Maitra R, Horne C, ODaly O, Papanastasiou E, Gaser C Schizophr Bull. 2022; 49(2):309-318.

PMID: 36226895 PMC: 10016412. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac132.

Cognitive Dysfunction as a Risk Factor for Psychosis.

Karcher N, Merchant J, Pine J, Kilciksiz C Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2022; 63:173-203.

PMID: 35989398 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2022_387.

Nonclinical psychotic-like experiences and schizotypy dimensions: Associations with hippocampal subfield and amygdala volumes.

Evermann U, Gaser C, Meller T, Pfarr J, Grezellschak S, Nenadic I Hum Brain Mapp. 2021; 42(15):5075-5088.

PMID: 34302409 PMC: 8449098. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25601.

Distress severity in perceptual anomalies moderates the relationship between prefrontal brain structure and psychosis proneness in nonclinical individuals.

Evermann U, Schmitt S, Meller T, Pfarr J, Grezellschak S, Nenadic I Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2021; 271(6):1111-1122.

PMID: 33532868 PMC: 8354976. DOI: 10.1007/s00406-020-01229-5.

A gyrification analysis approach based on Laplace Beltrami eigenfunction level sets.

Shishegar R, Pizzagalli F, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Egan G, Jahanshad N, Johnston L Neuroimage. 2021; 229:117751.

PMID: 33460799 PMC: 9150893. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117751.

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