ReviewNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2023
Neuroimaging in schizophrenia: an overview of findings and their implications for synaptic changes.
Review in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 128 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Association Between Chronic Tobacco Smoking and Brain Alterations in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies examining synaptic density in individuals with psychotic spectrum disorders.BMC psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Antipsychotics cause reversible structural brain changes within one week.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Cerebral cortical alterations in adolescent early-onset psychosis: a surface-based morphometry mega-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Thalamic reticular nucleus in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Loneliness, Genetic Susceptibility, Brain Structure, and the Risk of Schizophrenia: A Large Prospective Study.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Chronic schizophrenia versus Alzheimer's disease: neuroimaging perspectives on the late-life course of schizophrenia.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Schizophrenia and disordered sensorimotor control: challenges, mechanisms and opportunities.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Review
- Decoding Psychosis Risk: Neuroanatomical Correlates of the NAPLS-2 Calculator in the PRONIA Cohort.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging-Based Subgroups in Schizophrenia: A Critical Appraisal of Clustering Studies.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Decision processes in 3D structural MRI schizophrenia classification evaluated with saliency maps.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Aerobic glycolysis in Schizophrenia: Developmental rescue or energetic breakdown?Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Whole brain grey matter synaptic terminal density, age and intellectual functioning in schizophrenia: an in vivo [Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Bridging the Scales via Personalized Cellular Modeling and Deep Phenotyping in Schizophrenia.JAMA psychiatry · 2026Article
- Microstructural Alterations of the Corpus Callosum in Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia Revealed by NODDI: Dissociation Between Neurite Density and Orientation Dispersion in the Splenium.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Stress and synaptic density in psychosis and clinical high risk: evidence from [Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Loss of regional theta differentiation in TMS-EEG response marks network dysfunction in psychosis risk.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Relationship between N100 amplitude and T1w/T2w-ratio in the auditory cortex in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Cognitive behavioral therapy combined with aripiprazole in the treatment of schizophrenia: effects on cognitive function and psychological state.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Altered lipid peroxidation, perineuronal net and oligodendrocyte markers in the frontal cortex of a dual-hit neurodevelopmental model support its relevance to schizophrenia.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Over the last five decades, a large body of evidence has accrued for structural and metabolic brain alterations in schizophrenia. Here we provide an overview of these findings, focusing on measures that have traditionally been thought to reflect synaptic spine density or synaptic activity and that are relevant for understanding if there is lower synaptic density in the disorder. We conducted literature searches to identify meta-analyses or other relevant studies in patients with chronic or first-episode schizophrenia, or in people at high genetic or clinical risk for psychosis. We identified 18 meta-analyses including over 50,000 subjects in total, covering: structural MRI measures of gyrification index, grey matter volume, grey matter density and cortical thickness, neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging, PET imaging of regional glucose metabolism and magnetic resonance spectroscopy measures of N-acetylaspartate. We also review preclinical evidence on the relationship between ex vivo synaptic measures and structural MRI imaging, and PET imaging of synaptic protein 2A (SV2A). These studies show that schizophrenia is associated with lower grey matter volumes and cortical thickness, accelerated grey matter loss over time, abnormal gyrification patterns, and lower regional SV2A levels and metabolic markers in comparison to controls (effect sizes from ~ -0.11 to -1.0). Key regions affected include frontal, anterior cingulate and temporal cortices and the hippocampi. We identify several limitations for the interpretation of these findings in terms of understanding synaptic alterations. Nevertheless, taken with post-mortem findings, they suggest that schizophrenia is associated with lower synaptic density in some brain regions. However, there are several gaps in evidence, in particular whether SV2A findings generalise to other cohorts.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.