BRAIN IMAGING

Asymmetries of cortical thickness: effects of handedness, sex, and schizophrenia

Hamilton, Liberty S.a; Narr, Katherine L.a; Luders, Eileena; Szeszko, Philip R.d; Thompson, Paul M.a; Bilder, Robert M.b c; Toga, Arthur W.a

Author Information

aLaboratory of NeuroImaging

bDepartment of Neurology Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center

cJane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California

dDepartment of Psychiatry Research, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North-Shore Long Island Jewish Health Systems, Glen Oaks, New York, USA

Correspondence to Dr Arthur W. Toga, PhD, Laboratory of NeuroImaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 635 Charles Young Drive South, Suite 225, Los Angeles, California 90095-7334, USA

Tel: +1 310/206 2101; fax: +1 310/206 5518; e-mail: [email protected]

Received 15 May 2007; accepted 30 May 2007

NeuroReport 18(14):p 1427-1431, September 17, 2007. | DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e3282e9a5a2

Abstract

Sex, handedness, and disease processes in schizophrenia may affect the magnitude and/or direction of structural brain asymmetries. Using MRI data from 67 healthy (30 men, 10 nondextral) and 84 schizophrenia patients (60 men, 16 nondextral), cortical thickness asymmetries were compared at high spatial resolution. Within-group asymmetries were observed in sensorimotor, perisylvian, and parahippocampal cortices (leftward) and in anterior mesial frontal cortices (rightward). Asymmetry patterns were similar across diagnosis and sex, although some regional asymmetry increases were observed in men. Hand preference (dextrality) significantly influenced regional asymmetries in parietal association and dorsomedial frontal cortices (false discovery rate-corrected), where medial-frontal regions showed diagnosis by dextrality effects (uncorrected). Thus, dextrality relates to cortical thickness asymmetries, although schizophrenia may differentially affect asymmetry patterns across handedness.

© 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

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