Chunk #29 — DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN NEUROLEPTIC-NAÏVE PATIENTS WITH RECENT-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA — Relevance of FP in understanding the neurobiology of fronto-temporal dysfunction in schizophrenia
It may be speculated that the FP and whole brain volumetric findings of our study, along with the substantially higher range, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of all the volumetric measures noted in schizophrenia subjects may be considered as preliminary and indirect indicators toward a pathophysiological process involving “neurodevelopmental deviance” in schizophrenia. This concept of neurodevelopmental deviance[86] has the potential to encompass the influential and often contrasting/overlapping theories of neurodevelopmental[8788] and neurodegenerative[89] processes underlying schizophrenia pathophysiology. Further, the cortical network comprising the FP, STG, amygdala, and anterior cingulate could be a potentially important circuit to be explored for its role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and its symptom dimensions, considering that FP, which is central to this circuit, shows a deviance from age-expected volumetric changes in schizophrenia subjects and also since the STG, amygdala, and anterior cingulate are linked to the symptom dimensions of schizophrenia as mentioned earlier. However, it must be pointed out that conclusive evidence for neurodevelopmental deviance in schizophrenia would require confirmation of deviant developmental patterns of multiple brain regions in large scale longitudinal studies.
