Anatomical Dysconnectivity in Psychosis Across the Illness Course: Expanding and Extending the Functional Dysconnectivity Literature

“Thalamocortical anatomical connectivity in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder” by Sheffield et al1 is a welcome addition to the growing literature on thalamocorticalfunctional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. Using diffusion-weighted imaging, Sheffield et al1 give anatomical teeth to the functional findings. Furthermore, they expand on the functional literature by studying people with schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder, and go even further, by studying patients who are in the early stages of the disorders. In a set of findings that nicely parallel the functional connectivity data, the authors report similar patterns for anatomical thalamocortical dysconnectivity in psychosis: lower prefrontal cortical-thalamic connectivity and greater somatosensory-thalamic anatomical connectivity were present in both schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder, both early and later in the illnesses.
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research