Characterization Of Neuropsychological Impairment In Schizophrenia

我们回顾了越来越多的关于COMT（儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶）（一种与精神分裂症风险相关的基因）对认知、工作记忆、流体智力和注意力控制效率的影响的研究。 在人类和非人类灵长类动物中，有大量的工作表明前额叶皮层在信息处理中的核心作用。 我们还知道多巴胺调节这种信息处理，遗传因素影响大脑中多巴胺的含量。在这里，我们看看如何COMT多态性缬氨酸158甲硫氨酸有助于表征各种相互作用方面的复杂性与基因和认知。 我们对COMT缬氨酸/蛋氨酸如何用于开发和验证行为和神经生理表型进行了严格的检查。我们看看如何COMT已被用来作为一种工具，在描绘重叠的神经功能系统，并在探索基因和基因环境的相互作用。最后，COMT如何用于理解基因对认知的影响受环境，人口统计学和发育影响的调节。已经很好地确定，前额皮质中可用的多巴胺的量与COMT瓦尔/met多态性直接相关。这种影响见于COMT瓦尔/瓦尔携带者与COMT met/met携带者的前额生理学和信息处理的差异。我们已经确定，通过检查COMT在精神分裂症中的作用，COMT基因很好地说明了使用遗传表型关联来检查关于健康和受损脑功能的神经生物学假设的策略。 我们将继续我们在这一领域的工作，因为还有很多关于基因和认知之间的关联，以及如何将这些知识应用于行为医学和精神分裂症治疗领域的研究。

We reviewed the ever increasing body of work on the impact of COMT (catechol-o-methyltransferase), a gene associated with risk for schizophrenia, on the efficiency of cognition, working memory, fluid intelligence and attentional control. There is a large body of work, in both humans and non-human primates, which shows the central role of the prefrontal cortex in information processing. We also know that dopamine regulates this information processing and that genetic factors influence the amount of dopamine in the brain. Here, we look at how the COMT polymorphism valine158methionine has helped to characterize various interacting aspects of complexity with relation to genes and cognition. We performed a critical examination of how COMT valine/methionine has been used to develop and validate behavioral and neurophysiological phenotypes. We look at how COMT has been used as a tool in delineating overlapping neural functional systems, and in exploring gene-gene and gene-environmental interactions. Lastly, how COMT is used in understanding gene affects on cognition are regulated by environmental, demographic and developmental influences. It has been well established that the amount of dopamine available in the prefrontal cortex is directly associated with the COMT val/met polymorphism. This affect is seen in differences in prefrontal physiology and information processing of COMT val/val carriers versus COMT met/met carriers. We have determined, by examination of COMTs role in schizophrenia, the COMT gene nicely illustrates the strategy of using genetic phenotype associations to examine neurobiological hypotheses regarding both healthy and impaired brain function. We will continue our work in this area, as there is still much to uncover about the association between genes and cognition and how to apply this knowledge in the field of behavioral medicine and treatments for schizophrenia.