FMRI OF WORKING MEMORY IN THE SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM

该子项目是利用 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 中心，不一定是研究者的机构。 这项研究的目的是观察在进行一项仔细定义的视觉空间工作记忆任务时，与正常对照组相比，痴呆症患者和精神分裂症患者的大脑哪些区域显示出不同的代谢活动。这将有助于我们更好地了解精神分裂症认知障碍的神经生物学机制。分裂型患者是一个特别有用的群体，研究以了解精神分裂症的认知障碍，因为他们与精神分裂症共享遗传和现象学特征，但没有并发精神病症状，这可能会混淆与认知障碍相关的区域脑代谢活动的解释。SPD患者通常还提供了一个没有接触过神经安定药物的人群，其慢性效应可能会在大脑活动的研究中引入伪影。 这项研究将使用功能磁共振成像技术记录24名SPD患者、24名精神分裂症患者和48名正常对照者在进行视觉空间工作记忆任务时的局部脑血流量（rCBF），这是一种脑代谢活动的测量方法。 假设：我们预计，精神分裂症谱系患者（SPD和SCZ专利）将有BA 9/46的功能障碍，并将激活该区域不强烈比健康对照组进行视觉空间工作记忆任务。为了补偿，他们会招募其他皮层区域，特别是包括BA 10。然而，SCZ患者可能不能像SPD患者那样有效地激活BA 10，这可能是因为额叶中的病理程度更高。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The purpose of the proposed study is to visualize which regions of the brain show different metabolic activity in schizotypal patients and schizophrenic patients compared to normal controls while they are engaged in a carefully defined visual-spatial working memory task. This will help us to better understand the neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Schizotypal patients are a particularly informative group to study to understand the cognitive impairments in schizophrenia since they share genetic and phenomenological features with schizophrenia, yet do not have concurrent psychotic symptoms which might confound interpretation of the regional brain metabolic activity associated with cognitive impairment. SPD patients also typically provide a population that has not been exposed to neuroleptic medications, the chronic effects of which, could introduce an artifact in studies of brain activity. The proposed study will use fMRI to record regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), a measure of cerebral metabolic activity, in 24 SPD patients 24 schizophrenic patients and 48 normal controls as they carry out a visual-spatial working memory task. Hypothesis: We expect that schizophrenia spectrum patients (SPD and SCZ patents) will have a functional impairment in BA 9/46 and will activate this region less strongly than healthy controls in carrying out a visuospatial working memory task. To compensate, they will recruit other cortical areas, including BA 10, in particular. However, SCZ patients may not be able to activate BA 10 as effectively as SPD patients, likely because of a greater degree of pathology in the frontal lobe.