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Language lateralization in monozygotic twins discordant and concordant for schizophrenia. A functional MRI pilot study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Filip Spaniel ,
Jaroslav Tintera ,
Tomas Hajek ,
Jiri Horacek ,
Monika Dezortova ,
Milan Hajek ,
Colleen Dockery ,
Jiri Kozeny  and
Cyril Höschl
Filip Spaniel*
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Jaroslav Tintera
Affiliation:
MR Unit ZRIR, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Tomas Hajek
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Jiri Horacek
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Monika Dezortova
Affiliation:
MR Unit ZRIR, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Milan Hajek
Affiliation:
MR Unit ZRIR, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Colleen Dockery
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Jiri Kozeny
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Cyril Höschl
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Center of Neuropsychiatric Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author. Psychiatric Center, Ústavní 191, 181 03 Prague 8, Czech Republic. Tel.: +42 02 6600 3390; fax: +42 02 6600 3366. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (F. Spaniel), jati@medicon. cz (J. Tintera), [email protected] (T. Hajek), [email protected]. cz (J. Horacek), [email protected] (M. Dezortova), [email protected] (M. Hajek), [email protected] (C. Dockery), [email protected]. cz (J. Kozeny), [email protected] (C. Hö schl).
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Abstract

Aim

Previous studies have suggested altered structural and functional asymmetry of the brain in schizophrenia.

Methods

Functional MRI was used to assess differences in cortical activation during a verbal task in Broca's area and its contralateral homologue in four pairs of right-handed monozygotic (MZ) twins discordant and concordant for schizophrenia with low and high familial loading for the illness and four healthy control MZ twin pairs.

Results

Pooled data from all subjects with schizophrenia showed increased activation in the right homologue of Broca's area in contrast to healthy individuals. Concordant twins (i.e. high familial loading group) showed prominent between co-twin differences in lateralization index within given region of interest. Intra-pair differences in lateralization index were significantly higher in concordant twins compared to the controls (0.69 ± 0.4 vs. 0.13 ± 0.13, P < 0.03), albeit no significant differences in the variable were shown between the discordant and control groups.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence of reduced cerebral dominance for language processing in patients with schizophrenia. The findings further suggest the need for additional research on relative proportion of genetic and environmental factors underlying deviations of functional asymmetry in schizophrenia.

Keywords

Functional MRISchizophreniaLanguage lateralizationMonozygotic twins
Type
Short communication
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , July 2007 , pp. 319 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2007

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