Adult third ventricle width and infant behavioral arousal in groups at high and low risk for schizophrenia.

Previous research has demonstrated: (1) Subjects who are at genetic high risk for schizophrenia and who suffer delivery complications are at increased risk to evidence a widened third ventricle. (2) A widened third ventricle is related to decreased ANS arousal and, among schizophrenics, is related to negative symptom schizophrenia. (3) Adult schizophrenics evidence behavioral analogues of negative symptom schizophrenia premorbidly. This study compared adult CT scans to ratings of infant behavior in 179 subjects (104 at high genetic risk for schizophrenia) with the hypothesis that widened third ventricles would be related to underaroused infant behavior. Results of an ANOVA suggest that subjects who are at genetic high risk for schizophrenia and who evidence a widened third ventricle are more likely to have shown signs of behavioral underarousal as infants. Possible explanations, implications and limitations of the study are discussed.