TITLE:
The subgenual cingulate gyrus exhibits lower rates of bifurcation in schizophrenia than in controls, bipolar disorder and depression
AUTHORS:
Matthew R. Williams, Ronald K. B. Pearce, Steven R. Hirsch, Olaf Ansorge, Maria Thom, Michael Maier
KEYWORDS:
Neuropathology; Schizophrenia; Cortical; Flattening
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.2 No.4,
October
31,
2012
ABSTRACT: The subgenual cingulate cortex has been found to be different in structure and function in mood and affective disorders compared to healthy individuals. Imaging studies have shown a decrease in function of the subgenual region in bipolar disorder and depression, with overall glial number shown to be decreased in these disorders. Decreases in subgenual grey matter in SZ have been observed also. In this neuropathological study upon formalin-fixed coronal brain sections we describe the morphological finding of de- creased frequency of subgenual cingulate crown bifurcation (p = 0.02) as compared to control, bipolar and depression cases. This suggests that the cingulate cortex in schizophrenia may be morphologically distinct in utero formation, potentially enabling an early identification of high-risk individuals.