title: Sex differences in familiality effects on neurocognitive performance in schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Numerous studies have documented that patients with schizophrenia show neurocognitive impairments, which are also heritable in schizophrenia families. In view of these findings, the current investigation tested the hypothesis that neurocognitive performance of schizophrenia probands can predict the neurocognitive performance of their unaffected family members.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (n=1967; schizophrenia=369; first-degree relatives=1072; community comparison subjects=526) in the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia were administered the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Consistent with prior work, probands showed significant neurocognitive impairment, and neurocognitive ability was significantly heritable across domains. On average, unaffected relatives did not differ from community comparison subjects in their neurocognitive performance. However, in six of seven domains, proband scores predicted the performance of their unaffected siblings. Male, but not female, proband performance was predictive of their unaffected relatives' (siblings and mothers) performance, most consistently in face memory and spatial processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using a novel approach in which individual probands are paired with their respective unaffected relatives within each family, we found that male proband performance predicted both sister and brother performance, an effect that was most powerfully observed for face memory and spatial processing. Results suggest that the familial transmission of sexually dimorphic neurocognitive domains, in which a particular sex tends to show a performance advantage over the other, may not itself be sex specific in schizophrenia families.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. mcalkins@upenn.edu
authors: Monica E
authors: ME
authors: Calkins
authors: Amrita
authors: A
authors: Ray
authors: Ruben C
authors: RC
authors: Gur
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Freedman
authors: Michael F
authors: MF
authors: Green
authors: Tiffany A
authors: TA
authors: Greenwood
authors: Gregory A
authors: GA
authors: Light
authors: Keith H
authors: KH
authors: Nuechterlein
authors: Ann
authors: A
authors: Olincy
authors: Allen D
authors: AD
authors: Radant
authors: Larry J
authors: LJ
authors: Seidman
authors: Larry J
authors: LJ
authors: Siever
authors: Jeremy M
authors: JM
authors: Silverman
authors: William S
authors: WS
authors: Stone
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Sugar
authors: Neal R
authors: NR
authors: Swerdlow
authors: Debby W
authors: DW
authors: Tsuang
authors: Ming T
authors: MT
authors: Tsuang
authors: Bruce I
authors: BI
authors: Turetsky
authors: David L
authors: DL
authors: Braff
authors: Laura C
authors: LC
authors: Lazzeroni
authors: Raquel E
authors: RE
authors: Gur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012733:Sex Differentiation; D055815:Young Adult
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