title: Linking the developmental and degenerative theories of schizophrenia: association between infant development and adult cognitive decline.
abstract: Neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative theories may be viewed as incompatible accounts that compete to explain the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. However, it is possible that neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative processes could both reflect common underlying causal mechanisms. We hypothesized that cognitive dysfunction would gradually deteriorate over time in schizophrenia and the degree of this deterioration in adulthood would be predicted by an infant measure of neurodevelopment. We aimed to examine the association between age of learning to stand in infancy and deterioration of cognitive function in adulthood. Participants were nonpsychotic control subjects (n = 76) and participants with schizophrenia (n = 36) drawn from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort study. The schizophrenia group showed greater deterioration in abstraction with memory than controls, but there were no differences between schizophrenia and controls in rate of change of other cognitive measures. Age of learning to stand in infancy significantly inversely predicted later deterioration of abstraction with memory in adult schizophrenia (later infant development linked to greater subsequent cognitive deterioration during adulthood), possibly suggesting a link between abnormal neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative processes in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan;
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland;
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isohanni
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland;
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jääskeläinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland;
authors.forename: Jouko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miettunen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland;
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Veijola
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland;
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haapea
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK;
authors.forename: Marjo-Riitta
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Järvelin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK gm285@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Graham K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Murray
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: cognition; executive function; memory; neurodevelopment; schizophrenia