| Summary: | Abstract The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (NFBC 1966) is a general population study started in the 1960’s including 12,058 people born in the provinces of Oulu and Lapland. We studied magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes of the brain in subjects with schizophrenia at age 33–35 years. Another sub-group consisted of non-psychotic members of the NFBC 1966 who were born premature. In subjects with schizophrenia (n = 54) the volumes of whole brain, grey and white matter were reduced 2–3% and the volume of CSF was increased 7% compared to the general population control subjects (n = 100) without a psychotic episode. Regional grey matter density was reduced in several regions including frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital cortices, deep grey matter and cerebellum. Grey matter density was increased in the basal ganglia, anterior cingulate and medial orbitofrontal cortex. There were white matter deficits in inter- and intrahemispheric tracts bilaterally in the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes, subcortical structures, cerebellum and brainstem. CSF excesses were found in the lateral and third ventricles. Grey and white matter deficits were associated with duration of illness, so that the longer the duration, the smaller the density in the deficit regions. The hippocampal volume was reduced 2–3%, but the change was explained by the total brain volume reduction. We also investigated the effect of preterm birth or low birth weight on education, occupation (n = 715; controls 10,132), cognitive capacity and brain structure (n = 9; controls 95) in adulthood in the non-psychotic group of the NFBC 1966. The premature subjects had slightly lower educational and occupational performance in adulthood and they performed more poorly in verbal learning. There were no differences in the tissue segmentation analysis of the brain; however, we could not determine whether the negative finding was due to small sample size. In conclusion, we have confirmed previous findings of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia ...
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