A 26 yo male was admitted to the psychiatric unit complaining of hearing voices for the past 8 months

A 26 yo male was admitted to the psychiatric unit complaining of hearing voices for the past 8 months. His family stated that he roamed around the town and was often abusive to his siblings. The patient claimed he felt unsafe and thought that people wanted to hurt him. His mood was depressed and he exhibited apprehensive behavior. While admitted he often engaged in 3rd person conversations and had little insight. He had dropped out of school early and did not work. There was no family history of mental illness. The most consistent and early findings of brain MRI in these patients will reveal enlargement of which part of the brain?

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  1. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects how people think, feel, and perceive. The hallmark symptom of schizophrenia is psychosis, such as experiencing auditory hallucinations (voices) and delusions (fixed false beliefs).

  2. MRI studies conducted over the past 12 years, from 1988 to 2000, now provide some of the most compelling evidence for brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.

  3. These studies have shown enlarged lateral ventricles and specific gray matter volume reductions that are especially prominent in the superior temporal gyrus and in medial temporal lobe brain regions (amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus), thus showing a convergence with the post-mortem findings.

  4. Frontal and parietal lobe volume reductions have also been reported, though less consistently, as have increased size of cortical sulci.
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