White matter connectivity and psychosis in ultra-high-risk subjects: a diffusion tensor fiber tracking study

Abstract

This study assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) whether ultra-high-risk subjects who later develop a psychotic disorder (UHR-P) show abnormalities in association white matter fiber tracts as compared to UHR subjects who do not convert to psychosis (UHR-NP) and healthy controls. Participants comprised 17 male UHR subjects and 10 male healthy controls, who received baseline DTI scans before clinical follow-up. The uncinate and arcuate fasciculi, anterior and dorsal cingulate, and subdivisions of the corpus callosum were calculated and visualized, and tract-specific measurements were performed. At 24-month follow-up seven UHR subjects had developed a first psychotic episode. Fractional anisotropy in baseline DTI scans, including left-right asymmetry measures, did not differ between the groups. Thus, DTI measures of these association white matter tracts were not biological markers of psychosis in our UHR sample. Abnormalities of these fiber tracts may develop around or after onset of psychosis. However, further DTI studies in UHR subjects are needed in larger samples.