The volume of the entorhinal cortex in schizophrenia: A controlled MRI study

1. The entorhinal cortex (EC), part of the limbic temporal lobe, is a critical link between the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, and is considered one of the most important cortical ''association'' areas. Several postmortem abnormalities in the EC have been reported. 2. Here, the authors report the first in vivo study of the volume of the EC in schizophrenia using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. 3. The authors compared 57 schizophrenic patients and 35 healthy controls. No overall difference in the mean EC volume was found between controls and schizophrenic patients, but there was a strong trend (p=.078) for the schizophrenic females to have a large mean EC than control females and for the early onset schizophrenia group to have a smaller (EC (p=.07) than late onset schizophrenia subjects. 4. The implications of the findings are discussed.