Prenatal and Neonatal Brain Structure and White Matter Maturation in Children at High Risk for Schizophrenia

Gilmore, J., Kang, C., Evans, D., Wolfe, H., Smith, J., Lieberman, J., Lin, W., Hamer, R., Styner, M., & Gerig, G.. (2010). Prenatal and Neonatal Brain Structure and White Matter Maturation in Children at High Risk for Schizophrenia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(9), 1083-91. Retrieved September 4, 2011, from ProQuest Social Science Journals

I chose this article because I thought the subject matter was very interesting. I also thought that this study could be a significant aid into schizophrenia research by looking into prenatal and neonatal brain activity in high risk infants and fetuses to see if there are differences in brain structures.

The reasoning behind this article is that there are differences in brain structures and white matter in those that suffer from schizophrenia. This study looks at prenatal and neonatal development periods in genetically high risk individuals and looks to see if there are abnormalities in brain structures. Prenatal imaging ultra sound scans and MRIs were used to look at brain structures of participants with mothers with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder compared to participants with mothers that had no psychiatric illness. The sample consisted of 26 schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder mothers and 26 mothers with no psychiatric disorder. Women with schizopherenia or schizoaffective disorder who were pregnant were recruited from inpatient psychiatric units and outpatient clinics in central North Carolina. The comparisons were made between prenatal lateral ventricle width and head circumference for neonatal intracranial, cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter, white matter, and lateral ventricle volumes, and for neonatal diffusion properties of the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum and corticospinal tracts. The high – risk neonates did not have significantly larger intracranial, CSF, total gray matter, and lateral ventricle volumes. There were no group differences found in white matter diffusion tensor properties. Compared to the no psychiatric illness patients the offspring of mothers with schizophrenia did not differ in prenatal lateral ventricle width or head circumference. This study also found that male neonates at genetic risk for schizophrenia had several larger than normal brain volumes, while the female neonates did not. This study ultimately found that prenatal and early neonatal brain development is abnormal in males that are at a higher genetic risk for schizophrenia and that some brain structure endophenotypes associated with risk associated with risk for schizophrenia may be present at birth. Further research into this topic could derive better ways to develop early treatment for individuals that could or have already been diagnosed with schizophrenia.