FMRI OF WORKING MEMORY IN THE SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 这项拟议的研究的目的是可视化显示分裂类型患者和精神分裂症患者在进行仔细定义的视觉空间工作记忆任务时，与正常对照组相比，他们大脑的哪些区域表现出不同的代谢活动。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信息量的群体，用于研究精神分裂症的认知障碍，因为他们与精神分裂症有共同的遗传和现象学特征，但没有并发的精神症状，这可能会混淆对与认知障碍相关的局部大脑代谢活动的解释。SPD患者通常也提供了一个没有接触过抗精神病药物的人群，这种药物的慢性影响可能会在大脑活动的研究中引入一种伪影。 这项拟议的研究将使用fMRI来记录24名SPD患者、24名精神分裂症患者和48名正常对照在执行视觉-空间工作记忆任务时的局部脑血流量(RCBF)，这是一种衡量大脑代谢活动的指标。 假设：我们预计精神分裂症患者(SPD和SCZ患者)在BA9/46会有功能障碍，在执行视觉空间工作记忆任务时，激活该区域的强度低于健康对照组。作为补偿，他们将招募其他皮质区域，特别是BA10。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.