MedWire News: Subtle deficits in motor and sensory processing, known as neurologic soft signs (NSS), are associated with regionally specific alterations in brain morphology in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia, German scientists have discovered.
NSS have been consistently observed in patients with clinically manifest schizophrenia and in their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives. While NSS have been associated with changes in morphometry in various areas of the brain, the findings have varied considerably.
Seeking to clarify the associations, Duran Hirjak, from the University of Heidelberg, and colleagues used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla to examine volumetric and shape measurements of the thalamus, caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus in 20 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. The Heidelberg Scale was used to assess NSS following remission of acute symptoms.
The average score on the Heidelberg Scale was 10.0. Higher NSS total scores were associated with bilateral volume alterations in the thalamus, caudate nucleus, and putamen, as well as atrophy of the right pallidum.
Complex motor tasks subscale scores were associated with volume changes in the left caudate nucleus, while orientation subscale scores correlated negatively with right thalamus and right pallidum volumes.
Furthermore, NSS total and subscale scores were associated with regional shape alterations in all subcortical regions. For example, increased NSS total scores were associated with anterior shrinkage of the right thalamus, atrophy of the left caudate nucleus, and shape alterations in the right-hemispheric internal pallidum.
"Our results clearly support the hypothesis of an involvement of distinct subcortical structures in the pathogenesis and severity of NSS," the team says in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. "These associations seem to refer to regionally specific morphometric alterations rather than to global atrophy of the respective structures."
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