Using Neural Networks with Automatic Relevance Determination to Identify Regions of the Thalamus Implicated in Schizophrenia

Abnormalities of the thalamus may contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Several studies have found the thalamus to be altered in schizophrenia, and the thalamus has connections with other brain structures implicated in the disorder. This work examined thalamic levels of the metabolite N-acetylaspartate (NAA), taken from schizophrenics and controls using in-vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. Neural networks were trained on this data, and automatic relevance determination (ARD) identified NAA group differences in the pulvinar and mediodorsal nucleus, underscoring the importance of examining thalamic subregions in schizophrenia.