Reduced Dorsal and Orbital Prefrontal Gray Matter Volumes in Schizophrenia

Abstract

THE PREFRONTAL cortex is complex and heterogenous, with subregions varying in cytoarchitecture and connectivity to primary, multimodal association areas and subcortical nuclei.^1-4 It modulates cognition, executive functions—abstraction, attention, inhibition, planning, and working memory—motivation, and emotion.^1-3 These neurobehavioral domains are aberrant in schizophrenia, leading to examination with structural^5-9 and functional neuroimaging.^9-12 Human in vivo and postmortem research has converged with primate findings to elucidate intercellular processes modulating cortical circuitry.^1,13-17 Magnetic resonance imaging can parcellate gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes, addressing feature variability of gyri and sulci.