Evaluation of in vivo Hippocampal Volume Assessment in Psychosis Patients at High Field MRI

Schizophrenia is a serious and severe mental disorder of yet unknown etiology. Genetic, developmental and environmental factors have all been implicated in the emergence of the disorder. In particular, abnormalities in both morphology and volume of the hippocampus have been implicated in the underlying mechanisms contributing to the emergence of psychosis in schizophrenia and in other associated schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Hippocampal abnormalities are frequently posited to be a central feature of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, and are believed to give rise to memory impairments and auditory hallucinations, two common features of the illness. The goal of the current proposal is to compare the major imaging platforms’ segmentation of the hippocampus to the gold standard approach of manual segmentation in a cohort of dual diagnosis psychosis patients scanned at 3T. The intent of this project is to provide a rational approach to streamlining current operations and documenting a "best practices" approach for future publication, particularly for research involving brain regions of critical interest in the field of addiction and psychiatry.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Donna Lang

Student:

Cassie MacRae

Partner:

BC Mental Health & Addictions Research Institute

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of British Columbia