Previous studies have suggested that the habenula (Hb) may be involved in the mechanism of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the specific role of Hb in OCD remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the structural and functional abnormalities of Hb in OCD and their relationship with the clinical symptoms.

Eighty patients with OCD and 85 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited as the primary dataset. The grey matter volume, resting-state functional connectivity (FC), and effective connectivity (EC) of the Hb were calculated and compared between OCD group and HCs. An independent replication dataset was used to verify the stability and robustness of the results.

Patients with OCD exhibited smaller Hb volume and increased FC of right Hb-left hippocampus than HCs. Dynamic causal model revealed an increased EC from left hippocampus to right Hb and a less inhibitory causal influence from the right Hb to left hippocampus in the OCD group compared to HCs. Similar results were found in the replication dataset.

This study suggested that abnormal structure of Hb and hippocampus-Hb connectivity may contribute to the pathological basis of OCD.

Area-level residential instability (ARI), an index of social fragmentation, has been shown to explain the association between urbanicity and psychosis. Urban upbringing has been shown to be associated with decreased gray matter volumes (GMV)s of brain regions corresponding to the right caudal middle frontal gyrus (CMFG) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC).

We hypothesize that greater ARI will be associated with reduced right posterior CMFG and rACC GMVs.

Data were collected at baseline as part of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study. Counties where participants resided during childhood were geographically coded using the US Censuses to area-level factors. ARI was defined as the percentage of residents living in a different house five years ago. Generalized linear mixed models tested associations between ARI and GMVs.

This study included 29 HC and 64 CHR-P individuals who were aged 12 to 24 years, had remained in their baseline residential area, and had magnetic resonance imaging scans. ARI was associated with reduced right CMFG (adjusted β = -0.258; 95% CI = -0.502 – -0.015) and right rACC volumes (adjusted β = -0.318; 95% CI = -0.612 – -0.023). The interaction terms (ARI X diagnostic group) in the prediction of both brain regions were not significant, indicating that the relationships between ARI and regional brain volumes held for both CHR-P and HCs.

Like urban upbringing, ARI may be an important social environmental characteristic that adversely impacts brain regions related to schizophrenia.

No significant relationships.

Lithium (Li) is the gold standard treatment for bipolar disorder (BD). However, its mechanisms of action remain unknown but include neurotrophic effects. We here investigated the influence of Li on cortical and local grey matter (GM) volumes in a large international sample of patients with BD and healthy controls (HC).

We analyzed high-resolution T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging scans of 271 patients with BD type I (120 undergoing Li) and 316 HC. Cortical and local GM volumes were compared using voxel-wise approaches with voxel-based morphometry and SIENAX using FSL. We used multiple linear regression models to test the influence of Li on cortical and local GM volumes, taking into account potential confounding factors such as a history of alcohol misuse.

Patients taking Li had greater cortical GM volume than patients without. Patients undergoing Li had greater regional GM volumes in the right middle frontal gyrus, the right anterior cingulate gyrus, and the left fusiform gyrus in comparison with patients not taking Li.

Our results in a large multicentric sample support the hypothesis that Li could exert neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects limiting pathological GM atrophy in key brain regions associated with BD.

The aim of the current study was to examine whether and to what extent mood disorders, comprising major depression and bipolar disorder, are accompanied by structural changes in the brain as measured using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

We performed a VBM study using a 3Т MRI system (GE Discovery 750w) in patients with mood disorders (n=50), namely, 39 with major depression and 11 with bipolar disorder compared to 42 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls.

Our results show that depression was associated with significant decreases in grey matter (GM) volume of the regions located within the medial frontal and anterior cingulate cortex on the left side and middle frontal gyrus, medial orbital gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (triangular and orbital parts) and middle temporal gyrus (extending to the superior temporal gyrus) on the right side. When the patient group was separated into bipolar disorder and major depression, the reductions remained significant only for patients with major depressive disorder.

Using VBM the present study was able to replicate decreases in GM volume restricted to frontal and temporal regions in patients with mood disorders, mainly major depression, compared with healthy controls.

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder with high heritability and polygenic inheritance. Multimodal neuroimaging studies have also indicated that abnormalities of brain structure and function are a plausible neurobiological characterisation of schizophrenia. However, the polygenic effects of schizophrenia on these imaging endophenotypes have not yet been fully elucidated.

To investigate the effects of polygenic risk for schizophrenia on the brain grey matter volume and functional connectivity, which are disrupted in schizophrenia.

Genomic and neuroimaging data from a large sample of Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia (N = 509) and healthy controls (N = 502) were included in this study. We examined grey matter volume and functional connectivity via structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Using the data from a recent meta-analysis of a genome-wide association study that comprised a large number of Chinese people, we calculated a polygenic risk score (PGRS) for each participant.

The imaging genetic analysis revealed that the individual PGRS showed a significantly negative correlation with the hippocampal grey matter volume and hippocampus–medial prefrontal cortex functional connectivity, both of which were lower in the people with schizophrenia than in the controls. We also found that the observed neuroimaging measures showed weak but similar changes in unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia.

These findings suggested that genetically influenced brain grey matter volume and functional connectivity may provide important clues for understanding the pathological mechanisms of schizophrenia and for the early diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The majority of people at ultra high risk (UHR) of psychosis also present with co-morbid affective disorders such as depression or anxiety. The neuroanatomical and clinical impact of UHR co-morbidity is unknown.

We investigated group differences in grey matter volume using baseline magnetic resonance images from 121 participants in four groups: UHR with depressive or anxiety co-morbidity; UHR alone; major depressive disorder; and healthy controls. The impact of grey matter volume on baseline and longitudinal clinical/functional data was assessed with regression analyses.

The UHR-co-morbidity group had lower grey matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex than the UHR-alone group, with an intermediate effect between controls and patients with major depressive disorder. In the UHR-co-morbidity group, baseline anterior cingulate volume was negatively correlated with baseline suicidality/self-harm and obsessive–compulsive disorder symptoms.

Co-morbid depression and anxiety disorders contributed distinctive grey matter volume reductions of the anterior cingulate cortex in people at UHR of psychosis. These volumetric deficits were correlated with baseline measures of depression and anxiety, suggesting that co-morbid depressive and anxiety diagnoses should be carefully considered in future clinical and imaging studies of the psychosis high-risk state.