title: The effect of Neuregulin 1 on neural correlates of episodic memory encoding and retrieval.
abstract: Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) has been found to be associated with schizophrenia. Impaired performance in episodic memory tasks is an often replicated finding in this disorder. In functional neuroimaging studies, this dysfunction has been linked to signal changes in prefrontal and medial temporal areas. Therefore, it is of interest whether genes associated with the disorder, such as NRG1, modulate episodic memory performance and its neural correlates. Ninety-four healthy individuals performed an episodic memory encoding and a retrieval task while brain activation was measured with functional MRI. All subjects were genotyped for the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs35753505 in the NRG1 gene. The effect of genotype on brain activation was assessed with fMRI during the two tasks. While there were no differences in performance, brain activation in the cingulate gyrus (BA 24), the left middle frontal gyrus (BA 9), the bilateral fusiform gyrus and the left middle occipital gyrus (BA 19) was positively correlated with the number of risk alleles in NRG1 during encoding. During retrieval brain activation was positively correlated with the number of risk alleles in the left middle occipital gyrus (BA 19). NRG1 genotype does modulate brain activation during episodic memory processing in key areas for memory encoding and retrieval. The results suggest that subjects with risk alleles show hyperactivations in areas associated with elaborate encoding strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-Str. 8, 35039 Marburg, Germany. Axel.Krug@med.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krug
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Markov
authors.forename: Sören
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krach
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zerres
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eggermann
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stöcker
authors.forename: N Jon
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Markus M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Nöthen
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Treutlein
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Tilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kircher
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D020890:Neuregulin-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D020890:Neuregulin-1