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The following is a summary of “Widespread asymmetries of amygdala nuclei predict auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia,” published in the November 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Dumitru et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to explore amygdala asymmetries in auditory verbal hallucinations. The findings showed that amygdala nuclei volume differences became more similar as hallucination severity increased. 

They evaluated the performance of 2 asymmetry biomarkers: the distance index for global asymmetries and a revised laterality index for local left-right asymmetries. Random forest regression models were applied to values computed using these indices over amygdala nuclei volumes (lateral, basal, accessory-basal, anterior amygdaloid area, central, medial, cortical, cortico-amygdaloid area, and paralaminar) for 71 patients and 71 age-matched controls. 

The results showed that both biomarkers successfully predicted the 35 items of the Belief About Voices Questionnaire, with hallucination severity increasing as local asymmetries rose and global asymmetries decreased. 

They found a global reorganization of the amygdala, where asymmetries became more proportionally similar as hallucination severity increased. Identifying specific brain asymmetries helped monitor the evolution of psychopathological conditions. 

Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06301-1