A diffusion tensor imaging study of brain white matter and cognitive function in first-episode of childhood and adolescence-onset schizophrenia

Objective To explore the microstructural changes of brain white matter in first-episode of childhood and adolescence-onset schizophrenia and the relationship between the fractional anisostrapy(FA) values and cognitive function in patients. Methods This study was a case-control study, 40 childhood and adolescence-onset schizophrenia patients aged 10-16 years 35 healthy children with sex, age, education and race matched to controls were chosen. All the subjects were conducted diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans, then using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) method to compare FA values of white matter fiber. The cognitive function was assessed with the (MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, MCCB). The relationship between the FA values of different white matter and the cognitive function in the two group was analysed by using Pearson correlation analysis. Results Compared with the controls(n=34), FA values of patients(n=35) in the body of corpus callosum, genu of corpus callosum, splenium of corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, right upper corona radiate, upper left corona radiate significantly decreased (t=4.726, 2.855, 2.547, 2.943, 3.178, 2.969, all P<0.05). The FA values of the body of corpus callosum were positively correlated with the symbol coding, color, color words(r=0.34, 0.38, 0.36, all P<0.05) in patients. The FA value of the cingulum bundle were positively correlated with the Hapkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R), the FA value of the upper left corona radiate were positively correlated with the Word fluency (r=0.34, 0.37, both P<0.05). In the controls FA value of white matter in the body and genu of corpus callosum were positively correlated with the HVLT-R(r=0.34, 0.51, both P<0.05). Conclusions The childhood and adolescence-onset schizophrenia showed microstructural changes in the brain regional white matter, the pathophysiological mechanism of cognitive impairment may be related to the abnormalities of the brain white matter microstructural structure. Key words: Schizophrenia; Child; Adolescent; Diffusion tensor imaging; Cognition; White matter