NEUROIMAGING OF HIPPOCAMPAL FUNCTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

这是NIMH指导的以患者为导向的研究职业发展奖(K-23)的请求，题为“精神分裂症患者海马区功能的神经成像”。应聘者感兴趣的是研究人脑中的海马体功能，特别强调精神分裂症。有几条证据表明精神分裂症患者的海马体异常。这位候选人建议用功能神经成像实验来检验精神分裂症患者记忆相关的海马区缺陷的假说。候选人之前的培训是神经解剖学和临床精神病学，包括正电子发射断层扫描(PET)技术的初步培训。拟议的项目将提供更高级的PET培训，以及(1)结构和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)的应用，(2)记忆的认知神经科学，(3)比较精神病患者和对照受试者的统计学方面的培训，以及(4)精神分裂症的神经生物学方面的培训。为实现这些目标而设计的研究项目结合了四种实验方法来研究精神分裂症的海马体功能。首先，已建立的PET激活范例将用于评估精神分裂症患者和对照受试者记忆恢复过程中的海马体功能。其次，fMRI将用于研究精神分裂症患者和对照受试者记忆过程中海马体的激活。第三，利用形态计量学分析，海马体的激活模式将与大脑的结构组织相关联。第四，将开展心理学实验，研究精神分裂症患者的记忆和意识回忆。这一综合计划提供神经成像技术、认知神经科学和统计分析方面的培训，将促进候选人发展成为精神分裂症研究和神经精神病学领域的独立研究员。这项研究将促进我们对人脑中海马体功能的了解，并阐明精神分裂症的神经心理学和神经生物学。

This is a request for an NIMH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K-23) entitled "Neuroimaging of Hippocampal Function in Schizophrenia". The candidate's interest is the study of hippocampal function in the human brain with a special emphasis on schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence have implicated abnormalities of the hippocampus in schizophrenia. The candidate proposes to test the hypothesis of memory associated hippocampal deficits in schizophrenia with functional neuroimaging experiments. The candidate's previous training was in neuroanatomy and clinical psychiatry, and includes initial training in positron emission tomography (PET) technology. The proposed project will provide more advanced training in PET as well as training in (1) the application of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), (2) the cognitive neuroscience of memory, (3) the statistical aspects of comparing psychiatric patients and control subjects, and (4) the neurobiology of schizophrenia. The research project designed to achieve these goals integrates four experimental approaches to study hippocampal function in schizophrenia. First, established PET activation paradigms will be used to assess hippocampal function during memory retrieval in schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Second, fMRI will be used to study hippocampal activating during memory processes in schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Third, the pattern of hippocampal activation will be correlated with the structural organization of the brain using morphometric analyses. Fourth, psychological experiments will be developed to study memory and conscious recollection in schizophrenia. This integrated program, providing training in neuroimaging technologies, cognitive neuroscience, and statistical analyses, will foster the candidate's development into an independent investigator in the fields of schizophrenia research and neuropsychiatry. The research conducted will advance our understanding of hippocampal function in the human brain and elucidate the neuropsychology and neurobiology of schizophrenia.