New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience has discovered an association between reduced gray matter in the brain and early onset psychosis (EOP).
The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is the largest brain imaging study ever conducted in EOP and has provided unprecedented levels of detail about the disease. This shows that unlike other mental health disorders, people with EOP have a reduced volume of gray matter in almost every region of their brain. The researchers hope that this detailed mapping can be used to aid future diagnosis, as well as to monitor the effects of treatment in patients with EOP.
EOP occurs before the age of 18, during a critical period of brain development. People diagnosed with the disease are likely to have severe, long-lasting symptoms that respond less well to treatment. Despite this, research on EOP has been limited in terms of sample size and statistical power.
The study represents an international effort, combining brain scans from Norway, Spain, Canada, Italy, Australia and the United Kingdom, with 482 people with EOP compared to 469 healthy controls. An analysis of the data revealed that individuals with EOP had lower gray matter volumes in almost all brain regions compared to healthy controls, with a marked effect in the left middle cingulate, an area of the brain associated with training and treatment. emotions, learning and memory.
Dr Matthew Kempton, Reader in Neuroimaging Psychiatry at King’s IoPPN and lead author of the study, said: “Early psychosis can have a devastating impact on a person’s life and wellbeing, but our understanding of the disease is unfortunately still relatively limited. This study, the largest neuroimaging analysis of EOP to date, used newly developed technologies to combine scans from different sites to examine hundreds of thousands of data points measuring volume in the brain.
“We found that people with EOP have lower gray matter volume in almost every region of their brain compared to people without the condition. This detailed map will hopefully serve as a basis for future research, as it could serve as a diagnostic tool and even monitor the effectiveness of treatments.
Further analysis of the data revealed that individuals who developed EOP at older ages had lower gray matter volumes in a number of small brain regions compared to those with earlier onset.
Shuqing Si, the first author of the King’s IoPPN study, said: “The main purpose of gray matter is to process information in the brain and plays an important role in daily functions such as memory, emotions and movement. This study used specially created software. (ENIGMA-VBM) developed at King’s which can precisely map where there have been local increases and decreases in brain volume. This allowed our team to process much more data and means our sample reflects brain scans from many parts of the world. The effectiveness of this software means we are now studying the brains of people with several other disorders.
More information:
Mapping gray and white matter volume abnormalities in early psychoses – a multicenter ENIGMA voxel-based morphometric study, Molecular Psychiatry (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02343-1
Provided by King’s College London
Quote: The volume of gray matter in the brain is significantly lower in people with early psychosis, according to a study (January 9, 2024) retrieved January 9, 2024 from
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