A pilot study of facial, cranial and brain MRI morphometry in men with schizophrenia: part 2

Psychiatry Res. 2006 Oct 30;147(2-3):187-95. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.03.004. Epub 2006 Sep 1.

Abstract

This pilot study applies a new 3D morphometric MR method to test the hypothesis that men with schizophrenia (vs. controls) have deviant facial shapes and landmark relations in cranio/facial/brain (CFB) regions. This constitutes Part 2 of paired articles in this issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, in which Part 1 presents the new method in detail. MRI coordinates from CFB landmarks of 23 patients and 15 controls were identified and then aligned with the Procrustes model, leaving shape as the only unit-less geometrical information. Men with schizophrenia had significantly longer mid- and lower-facial heights, and greater lower (left) facial depth, with a tendency toward rotation along the facial midline. This supports findings from earlier anthropometric and 3D studies of the "exterior" (face). In contrast, none of the patient-control differences for the new "interior" (cranial-brain) distances reached statistical significance. These results need to be retested on a larger sample of both sexes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anthropometry
  • Brain / anatomy & histology*
  • Face / anatomy & histology*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Male
  • Pilot Projects
  • Schizophrenia / diagnosis*
  • Skull / anatomy & histology*