Structural magnetic resonance imaging studies in schizophrenia, in

... We thus come to the conclusion that, in dementia praecox, partial damage to, or destruction of, cells of the cerebral cortex must probably occur, which may be compensated for in some cases, but whichmostly brings in its wake a singular, permanent impairment of the inner life (1). The window on the brain provided by structural imaging has transformed our view of schizophrenia to one that views the very structure of the brain as altered, a view echoing Kraepelin’s prescient statement. Beginning with Johnstone’s CT findings of enlarged ventricles (which actually con-firmed earlier, less systematic pneumoencephalographic studies), subsequent reports using magnetic resonance imag-ing (MRI) have provided key information detailing volume reductions in particular brain anatomic regions of interest (ROI). These data have provided the major evidence in support of our current view that schizophrenia is a brain disorder with altered brain structure, and consequently in-volving more than a simple disturbance in neurotransmis-sion. Section Organization The next section is a nontechnical introduction to some of the basic concepts of MRI, and may be read independently of the other sections or skipped by those who wish to con-centrate on the clinical data. Subsequent sections discuss the application of structural MRI to questions in schizophrenia research, standards for technical quality and reviews of stud-ies, current MRI findings in schizophrenia (limited to stud-ies with defined ROI), and newer technologies