Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

BACKGROUND: Are anomalies of cerebral asymmetry integral to the disease process? Here, we examined the influence of age, chronicity and age of onset of illness in 34 patients with early onset schizophrenia and 20 controls in relation to structural asymmetries of the temporal lobe and performance asymmetries on a semantic language lexical decision task. METHODS: Volumetric MRI and a novel divided visual field probe of lateralised lexico-semantic language were assessed in patients with early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and controls. Novel ratios of age-illness overlap and directional asymmetry were developed in order to examine the association of chronicity factors to asymmetry. RESULTS: Loss of laterality on the lexical decision task and discordant structural asymmetry were correlated with duration of illness but were not seen in younger, less chronic patients. Reduced lateral processing speed, and discordant structural asymmetry were associated with greater proportion of lifetime schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Although the conclusions are limited by the cross sectional nature of the study, anomalies of cerebral asymmetry in early onset patients may be an index of disease progression, and reflect directly on the disease process.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.schres.2011.10.020

Type

Journal article

Journal

Schizophr Res

Publication Date

02/2012

Volume

134

Pages

125 - 130

Keywords

Adolescent, Disease Progression, Female, Functional Laterality, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Schizophrenia, Semantics, Temporal Lobe, Visual Fields, Vocabulary, Young Adult