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Schizophrenia and temporal lobe asymmetry

A post-mortem stereological study of tissue volume

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

J. Robin Highley ,
Brendan McDonald ,
Mary A. Walker ,
Margaret M. Esiri  and
Timothy J. Crow
J. Robin Highley*
Affiliation:
The Schizophrenia Research Group, Department of Neuropathology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Brendan McDonald
Affiliation:
The Schizophrenia Research Group, Department of Neuropathology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Mary A. Walker
Affiliation:
The Schizophrenia Research Group, Department of Neuropathology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Margaret M. Esiri
Affiliation:
The Schizophrenia Research Group, Department of Neuropathology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Timothy J. Crow
Affiliation:
The Schizophrenia Research Group, Department of Neuropathology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
*
Professor T. J. Crow, POWIC, University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX37JX. Tel: +44 1865 223909; Fax +44 1865 244990: e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background

A previous report by Crow of a left-sided increase in temporal horn volume in schizophrenia implies a left-sided loss of tissue.

Aims

To elucidate the structural nature of schizophrenia.

Method

The volume of grey matter in the temporal pole and inferior, middle and superior temporal gyri was measured, in addition to the total volume of grey and white matter, in the temporal lobes of the brains of 29 patients with schizophrenia and 27 controls.

Results

We found a significant left-sided reduction in the superior temporal gyrus in both males and females with schizophrenia, which was related to increasing age of onset in the males. The total volume of temporal lobe grey and white matter was also significantly reduced. Although being more marked on the left than the right, the lateralisation for these total grey and white measures (by contrast with the superior temporal gyrus alone) did not attain formal statistical significance.

Conclusions

Confirmation of a lateralised reduction in the superior temporal gyrus, which is differentially related to age of onset according to gender, adds to evidence that the changes in schizophrenia are in systems that are lateralised. The findings implicate language as the relevant function.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 175 , Issue 2 , August 1999 , pp. 127 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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