Superior temporal gyrus volume abnormalities and thought disorder in left-handed schizophrenic men

Objective: Studies of schizophrenia have not clearly defined handedness as a differentiating variable. Moreover, the relationship between thought diso rder and anatomical anomalies has not been studied extensively in left-hand ed schizophrenic men. The twofold purpose of this study was to investigate gray matter volumes in the superior temporal gyrus of the temporal lobe (le ft and right hemispheres) in left-handed schizophrenic men and left-handed comparison men, in order to determine whether thought disorder in the left- handed schizophrenic men correlated with tissue volume abnormalities. Metho d: Left-handed male patients (N=8) with DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophreni a were compared with left-handed comparison men (N=10) matched for age, soc ioeconomic status, and IQ, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a 1.5-T ma gnet was used to obtain scans, which consisted of contiguous 1.5-mm slices of the whole brain. MRI analyses las previously defined by the authors) inc luded the anterior, posterior, and total superior temporal gyrus in both th e left and right hemispheres. Results: There were three significant finding s regarding the left-handed schizophrenic men: 1) bilaterally smaller gray matter volumes in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (16% smaller on the right, 15% smaller on the left); 2) a smaller volume on the right side of the total superior temporal gyrus; and 3) a positive correlation between th ought disorder and tissue volume in the right anterior superior temporal gy rus, Conclusions: These results suggest that expression of brain pathology differs between left-handed and right-handed schizophrenic men and that the pathology is related to cognitive disturbance.