biostudies-literatureLangenbach BPKAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young ScientistsDeutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftUniversitätsklinikum EssenKAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific ResearchKAKENHI Grant-in-AId for Scientific ResearchKAKENHI Grant-in-AId for Scientific Research on Innovative AreasJapan Society for the Promotion of Science10810https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9233668biostudies-literatureUnknown12(1)While it is known that cultural background influences the healthy brain, less is known about how it affects cortical changes in schizophrenia. Here, we tested whether schizophrenia differentially affected the brain in Japanese and German patients. In a sample of 155 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 191 healthy controls from Japan and Germany, we acquired 3 T-MRI of the brain. We subsequently compared cortical thickness and cortical surface area to identify whether differences between healthy controls and patients might be influenced by ethnicity. Additional analyses were performed to account for effects of duration of illness and medication. We found pronounced interactions between schizophrenia and cultural background in the cortical thickness of several areas, including theScientific reportsCortical changes in patients with schizophrenia across two ethnic backgrounds.PMC9233668B_17H04248B_18H0274919K17061SU_222/5-118H05130Summer ProgramLangenbach BPSon SKoelkebeck KOhrmann PMatsukawa NKohl WSuslow TLichtenstein TPedersen AMiyata JMurai TBauer JfalseCortical changes in patients with schizophrenia across two ethnic backgrounds.While it is known that cultural background influences the healthy brain, less is known about how it affects cortical changes in schizophrenia. Here, we tested whether schizophrenia differentially affected the brain in Japanese and German patients. In a sample of 155 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 191 healthy controls from Japan and Germany, we acquired 3 T-MRI of the brain. We subsequently compared cortical thickness and cortical surface area to identify whether differences between healthy controls and patients might be influenced by ethnicity. Additional analyses were performed to account for effects of duration of illness and medication. We found pronounced interactions between schizophrenia and cultural background in the cortical thickness of several areas, including the2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Jun2025-04-04T19:13:42.615Z2025-04-04T19:13:42.615ZS-EPMC92336683575270610.1038/s41598-022-14914-3