Functional magnetic resonance imaging during auditory verbal working memory in nonpsychotic relatives of persons with schizophrenia: a pilot study.
BACKGROUND
First-degree relatives of persons with schizophrenia carry elevated genetic risk for the illness and show deficits on high-load information processing tasks. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether nonpsychotic relatives show altered functional activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), thalamus, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate during a working memory task requiring interference resolution.


METHODS
Twelve nonpsychotic relatives of persons with schizophrenia and 12 healthy control subjects were administered an auditory, verbal working memory version of the Continuous Performance Test during fMRI. An asymmetric, spin-echo, T2*-weighted sequence (15 contiguous, 7-mm axial slices) was acquired on a full-body MR scanner. Data were analyzed by Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM).


RESULTS
Compared with control subjects, relatives showed greater task-elicited activation in the PFC and the anterior and dorsomedial thalamus. When task performance was controlled, relatives showed significantly greater activation in the anterior cingulate. When effects of other potentially confounding variables were controlled, relatives generally showed significantly greater activation in the dorsomedial thalamus and anterior cingulate.


CONCLUSIONS
This pilot study suggests that relatives of persons with schizophrenia have subtle differences in brain function in the absence of psychosis. These differences add to the growing literature identifying neurobiological vulnerabilities to schizophrenia.
Thermenos
Heidi W
HW
Department of Psychology and Brain Research Institute (RP), University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Seidman
Larry J
LJ
Breiter
Hans
H
Goldstein
Jill M
JM
Goodman
Julie M
JM
Poldrack
Russell
R
Faraone
Stephen V
SV
Tsuang
Ming T
MT
D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009679:Nuclear Family; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*