Auditory Cortex Characteristics in Early Onset Psychosis and its Associations with Auditory Hallucinations: A Structural MRI Study

Abstract

Introduction

Smaller auditory cortex volume in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations (AH) may be a result of reduced cortical surface area and/or cortical thickness. A neuro–imaging study from our group demonstrated that adult schizophrenia spectrum patients with AH had significantly thinner cortex in the left side Heschl's gyrus (HG), compared to patients without AH, and healthy controls (HC).

Objectives

This study aims to investigate if adolescents with early-onset psychosis (EOP) and AH demonstrate thinner cortices in HG, as found in Mørch-Johnsen et al. in 2016, compared to EOP patients without AH, and HC.

Methods

EOP patients (schizophrenia spectrum, psychotic disorder not otherwise specified) (n = 29) underwent MRI. Mean volume, cortical thickness and surface area in auditory cortex regions (HG, superior temporal gyrus [STG]) were compared between patients with AH (n = 20) and without AH (n = 9), measured with item P3 from the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and 48 HC.

Results

Preliminary results show no significant differences between patients with and without AH and HC in mean volume, cortical thickness, or surface area in HG or STG. There were no significant side differences across hemispheres for these structures.

Conclusions

AH in EOP were not related to smaller volume, thinner cortex or reduced surface area in auditory cortex regions. To overcome the limitation of having a relatively small sample size, the sample will be expanded with other EOP cohorts. Investigations into HG structure variation in relation to AH in EOP will also be conducted.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.