Short Summary/Abstract:

Background: Critical conceptualization of sex differences in the manifestation and illness course of schizophrenia is essential to guide a precision medicine approach to treatment and management of each. The neurobiological underpinnings of the disease, especially in relation to structural brain differences between sexes, remains a relatively underexplored area. Characterizing distinct neurobiological features of schizophrenia in both men and women can foster a holistic approach to patient health. Understanding how unique sex-based clinical features relate to advanced imaging metrics canpotentially reveal sex-specific neural-behavioral markers in schizophrenia.
Hypotheses: The current study aims to characterize sex-specific brain morphology in cortical thickness and deep-brain regions in chronic schizophrenia patients (SCZ) and healthy control participants (CON). Hypotheses predict men with schizophrenia will exhibit greater abnormalities in frontal, temporal, parietal, cingulate, insular, amygdala, hippocampal, and thalamic regions compared to women with schizophrenia. Women with schizophrenia, compared to healthy women, are hypothesized to exhibit abnormalities in similar regions, particularly frontal, temporal, parietal, cingulate, insular, and basal ganglia areas. Men with schizophrenia, relative to healthy men, will likely show extensive global abnormalities. Finally, it is hypothesized that clinical symptomatology will differentially relate to the abnormal brain markers observed from the above in men and women with schizophrenia.