Hippocampal subfield alterations in schizophrenia: A selective review of structural MRI studies

Abstract

The hippocampus plays a crucial role in the psychophysiology of schizophrenia. The past few years have seen a rapid growth in studies of hippocampal subfield anatomy using MRI-based volumetry, with exciting new findings particularly in studies of schizophrenia. As findings varied across studies, and given limitations to conducting a meta-analysis at this time based on the number of available studies and their variability in methods, we conducted a literature review to investigate whether volume alterations of hippocampal subfields in schizophrenia are shared across subfields or specific in terms of severity and location, and their relation to genetic and clinical features. Current studies show that severity and location of subfield volume changes are related to risk for schizophrenia, discrimination of psychiatric disorders, severity of psychotic symptoms and cognitive dysfunction, duration of illness, and treatment response. These diverse findings indicate that MRI-based hippocampal subfield volume measurements are a promising clinically-relevant biomarker for future schizophrenia research.

Keywords

• Schizophrenia
• Biomarker
• Hippocampus
• Hippocampal subfields
• Structural MRI
• Volumetry