Hippocampal volumes in schizophrenic twins

Abstract

Context: The effects of genes and environment on brain abnormalities in schizophrenia remain unclear.

Objective: To examine the contributions of genes and environment to hippocampal volume reduction in schizophrenia.

Design: Population-based twin cohort study.

Setting: Finland.

Participants: Seven monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs concordant for schizophrenia and 16 MZ and 32 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia, ascertained so as to be representative of all such probands in a Finnish birth cohort, along with 28 MZ and 26 DZ healthy comparison twin pairs without a family history of psychosis.

Main outcome measures: Hippocampal volume measurements taken from high-resolution magnetic resonance images.

Results: Hippocampal volumes of probands were smaller than those of their nonschizophrenic MZ and DZ co-twins and healthy twins. Hippocampal volumes of probands' non-ill co-twins were smaller than those of healthy twins, but those of non-ill MZ and DZ co-twins of schizophrenic patients were similar. The intraclass correlations for hippocampal volumes among healthy and discordant MZ pairs were larger than those among the respective DZ pairs. The intraclass correlation for healthy MZ pairs was larger than that for discordant MZ pairs, and the variance component estimate for additive genetic effects was lower in discordant twins than in healthy twins.

Conclusions: Although hippocampal volume in healthy individuals is largely affected by genetic factors, it is subject to substantially greater modulation by environmental factors in schizophrenic patients and their relatives. The results are discussed in view of assumptions underlying classic twin methods.