Difference in Laterality of the Dorsal Striatum in Schizoaffective Disorder

Abstract

Background: Recent research has demonstrated that the dorsal striatum is directly associated with the integration of cognitive, sensory-motor, and motivational/emotional data. Disruptions in the corticostriatal circuit have been implicated in the pathophysiology of psychosis. The dorsal striatum was reported to show lateralized pathology in psychotic disorders. In this study, we aimed to analyze the laterality of the dorsal striatum with texture analysis of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images from schizoaffective disorder (SAD) patients. 

Methods: Twenty SAD patients, met the inclusion criteria and had available cranial MRI data were assigned as the patient group. Twenty healthy individuals were determined as the control group. Texture analysis values were obtained from striatum region of interests (ROI) generated from T2-weighted MRI images. Data are presented as mean and standard deviation. The suitability of the data for normal distribution was analyzed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test (Post Hoc TUKEY) was employed to compare the group data based on test findings. 

Results: There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of gender and age. There were differences in the values of texture analysis parameters of both caudate and putamen nuclei in comparison to controls. We identified differences in the left dorsal striatum nuclei in SAD. The differences in the putamen were more and more pronounced than in the caudate. 

Conclusions: Texture analyses suggest that the left dorsal striatum nuclei may be different in SAD patients. Further studies are needed to determine the pathophysiology of SAD and how it may affect disease treatment.