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S34-04 - Genetic and Non-Genetic Influences on Brain Function in Schizophrenia: An FMRI Study in Twins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2020

M. Picchioni
Affiliation:
Section of Neuroimaging, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK St Andrews Academic Centre, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Northampton, UK
T. Toulopoulou
Affiliation:
Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, UK
C. Fu
Affiliation:
SGDP Centre, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
I. Valli
Affiliation:
Section of Neuroimaging, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
U. Ettinger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany
M.-H. Hall
Affiliation:
Psychology Research Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
M. Brammer
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Computing, London, UK
V. Giampietro
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Computing, London, UK
D. Gasston
Affiliation:
Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
R. Murray
Affiliation:
Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, UK
P. McGuire
Affiliation:
Section of Neuroimaging, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Abstract

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Introduction

Altered neurocognitive function in schizophrenia could reflect both genetic and illness-specific effects.

Objectives

To use functional magnetic resonance imaging to discriminate between the influences of the genetic risk for schizophrenia and environmental factors on the neural substrate of verbal fluency, a candidate schizophrenia endophenotype using a case control twin design.

Methods

We studied 23 monozygotic twin pairs: 13 pairs discordant for schizophrenia and 10 pairs of healthy volunteer twins. Groups were matched for age, gender, handedness, level of education, parental socio-economic status, and ethnicity. Behavioural performance and regional brain activation during a phonological verbal fluency task were assessed.

Results

Relative to healthy control twins, both patients and their non-psychotic co-twins produced fewer correct responses and showed less activation in the medial temporal region and inferior frontal gyrus. Twins with schizophrenia showed greater activation than both their non-psychotic co-twins and controls in right lateral temporal cortex, reflecting reduced deactivation during word generation while their non-psychotic co-twins showed greater activation in the left temporal cortex.

Conclusions

Both genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia and schizophrenia were associated with impaired verbal fluency performance, reduced engagement of the medial temporal region and dorsal inferior frontal gyrus. Schizophrenia was specifically associated with an additional reduction in deactivation in the right temporal cortex.

Type
Structural and functional imaging of the brain in twins with schizophrenia
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2010
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