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Yu SC, Hwang TJ, Liu CM, Chan HY, Kuo CJ, Yang TT, Wang JP, Liu CC, Hsieh MH, Lin YT, Chien YL, Kuo PH, Shih YW, Yu SL, Chen HY, Chen WJ. Patients with first-episode psychosis in northern Taiwan: neurocognitive performance and niacin response profile in comparison with schizophrenia patients of different familial loadings and relationship with clinical features. BMC Psychiatry 2024; 24:155. [PMID: 38389072 PMCID: PMC10885443 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-024-05598-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Examining patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) provides opportunities to better understand the mechanism underlying these illnesses. By incorporating quantitative measures in FEP patients, we aimed to (1) determine the baseline distribution of clinical features; (2) examine the impairment magnitude of the quantitative measures by comparing with external controls and then the counterparts of schizophrenia patients of different familial loadings; and (3) evaluate whether these quantitative measures were associated with the baseline clinical features. METHODS Patients with FEP were recruited from one medical center, two regional psychiatric centers, and two private clinics in northern Taiwan with clinical features rated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Personal and Social Performance (PSP) scale. Quantitative measurements included the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), niacin response abnormality (NRA), and minor physical anomalies and craniofacial features (MPAs). To evaluate the relative performance of the quantitative measures in our FEP patients, four external comparison groups from previous studies were used, including three independent healthy controls for the CPT, WCST, and NRA, respectively, and one group of treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients for the MPAs. Additionally, patients from simplex families and patients from multiplex families were used to assess the magnitude of FEP patients' impairment on the CPT, WCST, and NRA. RESULTS Among the 80 patients with FEP recruited in this study (58% female, mean age = 25.6 years, mean duration of untreated psychosis = 132 days), the clinical severity was mild to moderate (mean PANSS score = 67.3; mean PSP score = 61.8). Patients exhibited both neurocognitive and niacin response impairments (mean Z-scores: -1.24 for NRA, - 1.06 for undegraded d', - 0.70 for degraded d', - 0.32 for categories achieved, and 0.44 for perseverative errors) but did not show MPAs indicative of treatment resistance. Among these quantitative measures, three of the four neurocognitive indices were correlated with the baseline clinical features, whereas NRA did not show such correlation. CONCLUSIONS This FEP study of Taiwanese patients revealed the presence of neurocognitive performance and niacin response and their different relationships with clinical features, rendering this sample useful for future follow-up and incorporation of multiomics investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shun-Chun Yu
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Centers for Genomic and Precision Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzung-Jeng Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Chian-Jue Kuo
- Taipei City Psychiatric Center, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tsung-Tsair Yang
- Department of Social Psychology, Shih Hsin University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Chen-Chung Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming H Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ting Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ling Chien
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Po-Hsiu Kuo
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ya-Wen Shih
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Sung-Liang Yu
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsuan-Yu Chen
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei J Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Centers for Genomic and Precision Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Miaoli County, Taiwan.
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Qigong exercise enhances cognitive functions in the elderly via an interleukin-6-hippocampus pathway: A randomized active-controlled trial. Brain Behav Immun 2021; 95:381-390. [PMID: 33872709 PMCID: PMC9758881 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Evidence has suggested that exercise protects against cognitive decline in aging, but the recent lockdown measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have limited the opportunity for outdoor exercise. Herein we tested the effects of an indoor exercise, Qigong, on neurocognitive functioning as well as its potential neuro-immune pathway. METHODS We conducted a 12-week randomized active-controlled trial with two study arms in cognitively healthy older people. We applied Wu Xing Ping Heng Gong (Qigong), which was designed by an experienced Daoist Qigong master, to the experimental group, whereas we applied the physical stretching exercise to the control group. The Qigong exercise consisted of a range of movements involving the stretching of arms and legs, the turning of the torso, and relaxing, which would follow the fundamental principles of Daoism and traditional Chinese medicine (e.g., Qi). We measured aging-sensitive neurocognitive abilities, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, and brain structural volumes in the experimental (Qigong, n = 22) and control groups (stretching, n = 26) before and after the 12-week training. RESULTS We observed that Qigong caused significant improvement in processing speed (t (46) = 2.03, p = 0.048) and sustained attention (t (46) = -2.34, p = 0.023), increased hippocampal volume (t (41) = 3.94, p < 0.001), and reduced peripheral IL-6 levels (t (46) = -3.17, p = 0.003). Moreover, following Qigong training, greater reduction of peripheral IL-6 levels was associated with a greater increase of processing speed performance (bootstrapping CI: [0.16, 3.30]) and a more significant training-induced effect of hippocampal volume on the improvement in sustained attention (bootstrapping CI: [-0.35, -0.004]). CONCLUSION Overall, these findings offer significant insight into the mechanistic role of peripheral IL-6-and its intricate interplay with neural processes-in the beneficial neurocognitive effects of Qigong. The findings have profound implications for early identification and intervention of older individuals vulnerable to cognitive decline, focusing on the neuro-immune pathway. The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT04641429).
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Lin AS, Chan HY, Peng YC, Chen WJ. Severity in sustained attention impairment and clozapine-resistant schizophrenia: a retrospective study. BMC Psychiatry 2019; 19:220. [PMID: 31299940 PMCID: PMC6626410 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-019-2204-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Among patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), some exhibited further clozapine resistance (CR). This study aimed to investigate whether greater severity of treatment resistance in schizophrenia is associated with greater impairments in sustained attention. METHODS Patients with a DSM-IV-defined schizophrenia were recruited from a psychiatric center in northern Taiwan (April 2010 to October 2010). Both TRS and CR were determined retrospectively from participants' medical records following the consensus guidelines. The patients were divided into three groups: 102 non-TRS, 48 TRS without CR, and 54 TRS with CR. They underwent both undegraded and degraded Continuous Performance Tests (CPT), and their performance scores (d') were standardized against a community sample to derive age-, sex-, and education-adjusted z scores. RESULTS The TRS with CR group had significantly lower adjusted z scores of d' on both undegraded and degraded CPTs than the other two groups. Meanwhile, the differences between the TRS without CR group and the non-TRS group were not significant. Multivariable linear regression analyses with adjustment for covariates revealed a trend of gradient impairments on the degraded CPT from non-TRS to TRS without CR and to TRS with CR. The proportions of attentional deficits (an adjusted z score of ≤ - 2.5) on the degraded CPT also exhibited a significant trend, from 36.3% in the non-TRS group to 62.5% in the TRS without CR group and to 83.3% in the TRS with CR group. CONCLUSIONS Greater severity of treatment resistance in schizophrenia was associated with greater impairments in sustained attention, indicating some common vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- An-Sheng Lin
- grid.454740.6Department of General Psychiatry, Taoyuan Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Hung-Yu Chan
- grid.454740.6Office of Superintendent, Taoyuan Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taoyuan, Taiwan ,0000 0004 0546 0241grid.19188.39Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ying-Chieh Peng
- grid.454740.6Department of General Psychiatry, Bali Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Wei J. Chen
- 0000 0004 0546 0241grid.19188.39Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan ,0000 0004 0546 0241grid.19188.39Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei, 100 Taiwan
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4
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Liu CM, Liu YL, Hwu HG, Fann CSJ, Yang UC, Hsu PC, Chang CC, Chen WJ, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Liu CC, Chien YL, Lin YT, Tsuang MT. Genetic associations and expression of extra-short isoforms of disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 in a neurocognitive subgroup of schizophrenia. J Hum Genet 2019; 64:653-663. [PMID: 30976040 DOI: 10.1038/s10038-019-0597-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2018] [Revised: 03/20/2019] [Accepted: 03/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) was reported to be associated with schizophrenia. In a previous study, we found significant association with schizophrenia patients with deficient sustained attention assessed by continuous performance test (CPT). This study aimed to identify risk polymorphisms in this specific neurocognitive subgroup and investigate the expression of different isoforms of DISC1. A total of 83 genetic variants were identified through direct sequencing in 50 controls and 100 schizophrenia patients. Fourteen variants were genotyped in 600 controls and 912 patients. Patients were subgrouped by familial loading (multiplex or simplex) and performance on CPT. The frequency of AA genotype of rs11122324 at the 3'-UTR of Es and Esv1 isoforms and of rs2793091 at intron 4 were significantly higher in multiplex schizophrenia patients than those in controls (corrected p < 0.05). In further subgrouping, the frequency of AA genotype of the two SNPs were significantly higher in multiplex schizophrenia patients with deficient sustained attention than those in controls (corrected p < 0.005). The mRNA expression levels of two extra-short isoforms (Es and Esv1) in the EBV-transformed lymphocytes of schizophrenia were significantly higher than those of controls. Luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that the A-allele of rs11122324 significantly upregulated DISC1 extra-short isoforms transcription compared with the G-allele. We found two SNPs (rs11122324 and rs2793091) of DISC1 may be specifically associated with multiplex schizophrenia patients with deficient sustained attention. The SNP rs11122324 may be a risk polymorphism, which may have functional influence on the transcription of Es and Esv1 through increasing their expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. .,Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Yu-Li Liu
- Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Ueng-Cheng Yang
- Institute of Bioinformatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Chun Hsu
- Institute of Bioinformatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Wei J Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzung-Jeng Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.,Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming H Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chen-Chung Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ling Chien
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Tin Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming T Tsuang
- Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.,Harvard Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Boston, MA, USA.,Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA
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Lin CH, Lane HY. Early Identification and Intervention of Schizophrenia: Insight From Hypotheses of Glutamate Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress. Front Psychiatry 2019; 10:93. [PMID: 30873052 PMCID: PMC6400883 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2018] [Accepted: 02/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which leads to functional deterioration. Early detection and intervention are vital for better prognosis. However, the diagnosis of schizophrenia still depends on clinical observation to date. Without reliable biomarkers, schizophrenia is difficult to detect in its early phase. Further, there is no approved medication for prodromal schizophrenia because current antipsychotics fail to show satisfactory efficacy and safety. Therefore, to develop an effective early diagnostic and therapeutic approach for schizophrenia, especially in its prodromal phase, is crucial. Glutamate signaling dysfunction and dysregulation of oxidative stress have been considered to play important roles in schizophrenic prodrome. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is one of three types of ionotropic glutamate receptors. In this article, we reviewed literature regarding NMDAR hypofunction, oxidative stress, and the linkage between both in prodromal schizophrenia. The efficacy of NMDAR enhancers such as D-amino acid oxidase inhibitor was addressed. Finally, we highlighted potential biomarkers related to NMDAR and oxidative stress regulation, and therefore suggested the strategies of early detection and intervention of prodromal schizophrenia. Future larger-scale studies combining biomarkers and novel drug development for early psychosis are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chieh-Hsin Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
| | - Hsien-Yuan Lane
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry and Brain Disease Research Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
- Department of Psychology, College of Medical and Health Sciences, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan
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Gilmour G, Porcelli S, Bertaina-Anglade V, Arce E, Dukart J, Hayen A, Lobo A, Lopez-Anton R, Merlo Pich E, Pemberton DJ, Havenith MN, Glennon JC, Harel BT, Dawson G, Marston H, Kozak R, Serretti A. Relating constructs of attention and working memory to social withdrawal in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia: issues regarding paradigm selection. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 97:47-69. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.09.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2017] [Revised: 08/29/2018] [Accepted: 09/27/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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MacQueen DA, Young JW, Cope ZA. Cognitive Phenotypes for Biomarker Identification in Mental Illness: Forward and Reverse Translation. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2018; 40:111-166. [PMID: 29858983 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2018_50] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Psychiatric illness has been acknowledged for as long as people were able to describe behavioral abnormalities in the general population. In modern times, these descriptions have been codified and continuously updated into manuals by which clinicians can diagnose patients. None of these diagnostic manuals have attempted to tie abnormalities to neural dysfunction however, nor do they necessitate the quantification of cognitive function despite common knowledge of its ties to functional outcome. In fact, in recent years the National Institute of Mental Health released a novel transdiagnostic classification, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), which utilizes quantifiable behavioral abnormalities linked to neurophysiological processes. This reclassification highlights the utility of RDoC constructs as potential cognitive biomarkers of disease state. In addition, with RDoC and cognitive biomarkers, the onus of researchers utilizing animal models no longer necessitates the recreation of an entire disease state, but distinct processes. Here, we describe the utilization of constructs from the RDoC initiative to forward animal research on these cognitive and behavioral processes, agnostic of disease. By linking neural processes to these constructs, identifying putative abnormalities in diseased patients, more targeted therapeutics can be developed.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A MacQueen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Research Service, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Jared W Young
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Research Service, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA.
| | - Zackary A Cope
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
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8
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Liu YL, Wang SC, Hwu HG, Fann CSJ, Yang UC, Yang WC, Hsu PC, Chang CC, Wen CC, Tsai-Wu JJ, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Liu CC, Chien YL, Fang CP, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Chen WJ, Liu CM. Haplotypes of the D-Amino Acid Oxidase Gene Are Significantly Associated with Schizophrenia and Its Neurocognitive Deficits. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0150435. [PMID: 26986737 PMCID: PMC4795637 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2015] [Accepted: 02/13/2016] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) has been reported to be associated with schizophrenia. This study aimed to search for genetic variants associated with this gene. The genomic regions of all exons, highly conserved regions of introns, and promoters of this gene were sequenced. Potentially meaningful single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained from direct sequencing were selected for genotyping in 600 controls and 912 patients with schizophrenia and in a replicated sample consisting of 388 patients with schizophrenia. Genetic associations were examined using single-locus and haplotype association analyses. In single-locus analyses, the frequency of the C allele of a novel SNP rs55944529 located at intron 8 was found to be significantly higher in the original large patient sample (p = 0.016). This allele was associated with a higher level of DAO mRNA expression in the Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocytes. The haplotype distribution of a haplotype block composed of rs11114083-rs2070586-rs2070587-rs55944529 across intron 1 and intron 8 was significantly different between the patients and controls and the haplotype frequencies of AAGC were significantly higher in patients, in both the original (corrected p < 0.0001) and replicated samples (corrected p = 0.0003). The CGTC haplotype was specifically associated with the subgroup with deficits in sustained attention and executive function and the AAGC haplotype was associated with the subgroup without such deficits. The DAO gene was a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and the genomic region between intron 1 and intron 8 may harbor functional genetic variants, which may influence the mRNA expression of DAO and neurocognitive functions in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Li Liu
- Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 35053, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Sheng-Chang Wang
- Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 35053, Taiwan
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | | | - Ueng-Cheng Yang
- Institute of Bioinformatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan
| | - Wei-Chih Yang
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Chun Hsu
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Chien-Ching Chang
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Chiang Wen
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Jyy-Jih Tsai-Wu
- Department of Medical Research, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Tzung-Jeng Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Ming H. Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Chen-Chung Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ling Chien
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Chiu-Ping Fang
- Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 35053, Taiwan
| | - Stephen V. Faraone
- Medical Genetics Research Center and Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience & Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States of America
| | - Ming T. Tsuang
- Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, and Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States of America
- Institute of Behavioral Genomics, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California 92093, United States of America
| | - Wei J. Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10051, Taiwan
- * E-mail:
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Nuechterlein KH, Green MF, Calkins ME, Greenwood TA, Gur RE, Gur RC, Lazzeroni LC, Light GA, Radant AD, Seidman LJ, Siever LJ, Silverman JM, Sprock J, Stone WS, Sugar CA, Swerdlow NR, Tsuang DW, Tsuang MT, Turetsky BI, Braff DL. Attention/vigilance in schizophrenia: performance results from a large multi-site study of the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS). Schizophr Res 2015; 163:38-46. [PMID: 25749017 PMCID: PMC4382444 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2015.01.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2014] [Revised: 01/07/2015] [Accepted: 01/09/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Attention/vigilance impairments are present in individuals with schizophrenia across psychotic and remitted states and in their first-degree relatives. An important question is whether deficits in attention/vigilance can be consistently and reliably measured across sites varying in many participant demographic, clinical, and functional characteristics, as needed for large-scale genetic studies of endophenotypes. We examined Continuous Performance Test (CPT) data from phase 2 of the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS-2), the largest-scale assessment of cognitive and psychophysiological endophenotypes relevant to schizophrenia. The CPT data from 2251 participants from five sites were examined. A perceptual-load vigilance task (the Degraded Stimulus CPT or DS-CPT) and a memory-load vigilance task (CPT-Identical Pairs or CPT-IP) were utilized. Schizophrenia patients performed more poorly than healthy comparison subjects (HCS) across sites, despite significant site differences in participant age, sex, education, and racial distribution. Patient-HCS differences in signal/noise discrimination (d') in the DS-CPT varied significantly across sites, but averaged a medium effect size. CPT-IP performance showed large patient-HCS differences across sites. Poor CPT performance was independent of or weakly correlated with symptom severity, but was significantly associated with lower educational achievement and functional capacity. Current smoking was associated with poorer CPT-IP d'. Patients taking both atypical and typical antipsychotic medication performed more poorly than those on no or atypical antipsychotic medications, likely reflecting their greater severity of illness. We conclude that CPT deficits in schizophrenia can be reliably detected across sites, are relatively independent of current symptom severity, and are related to functional capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith H. Nuechterlein
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States,Corresponding author: Keith H. Nuechterlein, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Room 2240, Los Angeles, CA 90095-6968.
| | - Michael F. Green
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Monica E. Calkins
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Tiffany A. Greenwood
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Raquel E. Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Ruben C. Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Laura C. Lazzeroni
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA United States, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Gregory A. Light
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, VISN22, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Allen D. Radant
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Larry J. Seidman
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Larry J. Siever
- Department of Psychiatry, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Jeremy M. Silverman
- Department of Psychiatry, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Joyce Sprock
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, VISN22, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - William S. Stone
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Catherine A. Sugar
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Department of Biostatistics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Neal R. Swerdlow
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Debby W. Tsuang
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Ming T. Tsuang
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States,The Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States, Harvard Institute of Psychiatry Epidemiology and Genetics, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Bruce I. Turetsky
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - David L. Braff
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, VISN22, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States
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Chen WJ. Taiwan Schizophrenia Linkage Study: lessons learned from endophenotype-based genome-wide linkage scans and perspective. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2013; 162B:636-47. [PMID: 24132895 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2013] [Accepted: 03/27/2013] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Taiwan Schizophrenia Linkage Study (TSLS) was initiated with a linkage strategy for locating multiple genes, each of small to moderate effect, and aimed to recruit a large enough sample of pairs of affected siblings and their families ascertained from a multisite study. With a sample of 607 families successfully recruited, a total of 2,242 individuals (1,207 affected and 1,035 unaffected) from 557 families were genotyped using 386 microsatellite markers spaced at an average of 9-cM intervals. Here the author reviews the establishment of TSLS and initial signal derived from linkage scan using the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Based on the limited success of the initial linkage analysis, a sufficient-component causal model is proposed to incorporate endophenotypes and genes for schizophrenia. Four types of candidate endophenotype measured in TSLS, including schizotypal personality, Continuous Performance Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and niacin skin flush test, are briefly described. The author discusses different strategies of linkage analysis incorporating these endophenotypes, including quantitative trait loci (QTL) linkage analysis, clustering-derived subgroups, ordered subset analysis (OSA), and latent classes for linkage scan. Then the author summarizes the linkage signals generated from seven studies of endophenotype-based linkage analysis using TSLS, including QTL scan of neurocognitive performance, QTL scan of niacin skin flush, the family cluster of attention deficit and execution deficit, OSA by schizophrenia-schizotypy factors, nested OSA by age at onset and neurocognitive performance, and the latent class of deficit schizophrenia for linkage analysis. The perspective of combining next-generation sequencing with linkage analysis of families is also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei J Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Center of Genomic Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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11
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Lin SH, Liu CM, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Hsiao PC, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG, Chen WJ. Performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in families of schizophrenia patients with different familial loadings. Schizophr Bull 2013; 39:537-46. [PMID: 23196712 PMCID: PMC3627779 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbs141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Despite the consistent presence of performance deficits on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in schizophrenia patients, whether poorer performance is also present in their nonpsychotic relatives is not certain. This study aimed to estimate both the recurrence risk ratio (λs) and the heritability of WCST scores in simplex and multiplex families, respectively, and to examine the influence of familial loading on these estimates. Participants were patients with schizophrenia and their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives from 168 simplex families and 653 multiplex families as well as 440 normal comparisons. On the basis of adjusted z scores, both the λs at a series of cutoff points and heritability estimates based on variance component modeling in the nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenia patients were estimated. The WCST deficits in schizophrenia patients were more prominent in multiplex families than in simplex ones. Among relatives, WCST deficits were limited to parents of multiplex families for most WCST scores and siblings from multiplex families for total errors, perseverative responses, and perseverative errors. Pertaining to λs, the estimates for multiplex families (highest estimates ranging from 7.9 to 11.0) were greater than those for simplex ones (<2.5). Nevertheless, the heritability estimates were very similar between simplex (ranging from 0% to 17%) and multiplex (ranging from 0% to 21%) families, with the latter having slightly greater values than the former. There is only a small-to-modest familial aggregation on part of WCST scores in families of schizophrenia patients, and this may limit its use as endophenotypic markers to schizophrenia susceptibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheng-Hsiang Lin
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzung-Jeng Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming H. Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Po-Chang Hsiao
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Research Center for Medical Excellence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Stephen V. Faraone
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical Genetics Research Center, SUNY Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY
| | - Ming T. Tsuang
- Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Harvard University, Boston, MA
- Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei J. Chen
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Research Center for Medical Excellence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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12
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Yang HC, Liu CM, Liu YL, Chen CW, Chang CC, Fann CSJ, Chiou JJ, Yang UC, Chen CH, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG. The DAO gene is associated with schizophrenia and interacts with other genes in the Taiwan Han Chinese population. PLoS One 2013; 8:e60099. [PMID: 23555897 PMCID: PMC3610748 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2012] [Accepted: 02/22/2013] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disease with a polygenic mode of inheritance. Many studies have contributed to our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia, but little is known about how interactions among genes affect the risk of schizophrenia. This study aimed to assess the associations and interactions among genes that confer vulnerability to schizophrenia and to examine the moderating effect of neuropsychological impairment. METHODS We analyzed 99 SNPs from 10 candidate genes in 1,512 subject samples. The permutation-based single-locus, multi-locus association tests, and a gene-based multifactorial dimension reduction procedure were used to examine genetic associations and interactions to schizophrenia. RESULTS We found that no single SNP was significantly associated with schizophrenia. However, a risk haplotype, namely A-T-C of the SNP triplet rsDAO7-rsDAO8-rsDAO13 of the DAO gene, was strongly associated with schizophrenia. Interaction analyses identified multiple between-gene and within-gene interactions. Between-gene interactions including DAO*DISC1 , DAO*NRG1 and DAO*RASD2 and a within-gene interaction for CACNG2 were found among schizophrenia subjects with severe sustained attention deficits, suggesting a modifying effect of impaired neuropsychological functioning. Other interactions such as the within-gene interaction of DAO and the between-gene interaction of DAO and PTK2B were consistently identified regardless of stratification by neuropsychological dysfunction. Importantly, except for the within-gene interaction of CACNG2, all of the identified risk haplotypes and interactions involved SNPs from DAO. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that DAO, which is involved in the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor regulation, signaling and glutamate metabolism, is the master gene of the genetic associations and interactions underlying schizophrenia. Besides, the interaction between DAO and RASD2 has provided an insight in integrating the glutamate and dopamine hypotheses of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsin-Chou Yang
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Li Liu
- Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chia-Wei Chen
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Cathy S. J. Fann
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jen-Jie Chiou
- Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ueng-Cheng Yang
- Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Houh Chen
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Stephen V. Faraone
- Medical Genetics Research Center and Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
| | - Ming T. Tsuang
- Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, and Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Institute of Behavioral Genomics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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13
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Chien YL, Hwu HG, Fann CSJ, Chang CC, Tsuang MT, Liu CM. DRD2 haplotype associated with negative symptoms and sustained attention deficits in Han Chinese with schizophrenia in Taiwan. J Hum Genet 2013; 58:229-32. [DOI: 10.1038/jhg.2012.157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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A genome-wide linkage scan for distinct subsets of schizophrenia characterized by age at onset and neurocognitive deficits. PLoS One 2011; 6:e24103. [PMID: 21897869 PMCID: PMC3163684 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2011] [Accepted: 07/30/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND As schizophrenia is genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous, targeting genetically informative phenotypes may help identify greater linkage signals. The aim of the study is to evaluate the genetic linkage evidence for schizophrenia in subsets of families with earlier age at onset or greater neurocognitive deficits. METHODS Patients with schizophrenia (n = 1,207) and their first-degree relatives (n = 1,035) from 557 families with schizophrenia were recruited from six data collection field research centers throughout Taiwan. Subjects completed a face-to-face semi-structured interview, the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and were genotyped with 386 microsatellite markers across the genome. RESULTS A maximum nonparametric logarithm of odds (LOD) score of 4.17 at 2q22.1 was found in 295 families ranked by increasing age at onset, which had significant increases in the maximum LOD score compared with those obtained in initial linkage analyses using all available families. Based on this subset, a further subsetting by false alarm rate on the undegraded and degraded CPT obtained further increase in the nested subset-based LOD on 2q22.1, with a score of 7.36 in 228 families and 7.71 in 243 families, respectively. CONCLUSION We found possible evidence of linkage on chromosome 2q22.1 in families of schizophrenia patients with more CPT false alarm rates nested within the families with younger age at onset. These results highlight the importance of incorporating genetically informative phenotypes in unraveling the complex genetics of schizophrenia.
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Liu CM, Fann CSJ, Chen CY, Liu YL, Oyang YJ, Yang WC, Chang CC, Wen CC, Chen WJ, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Liu CC, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG. ANXA7, PPP3CB, DNAJC9, and ZMYND17 genes at chromosome 10q22 associated with the subgroup of schizophrenia with deficits in attention and executive function. Biol Psychiatry 2011; 70:51-8. [PMID: 21531385 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.02.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2010] [Revised: 12/31/2010] [Accepted: 02/01/2011] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND A genome scan of Taiwanese schizophrenia families suggested linkage to chromosome 10q22.3. We aimed to find the candidate genes in this region. METHODS A total of 476 schizophrenia families were included. Hierarchical clustering method was used for clustering families to homogeneous subgroups according to their performances of sustained attention and executive function. Association analysis was performed using family-based association testing and TRANSMIT. Candidate associated regions were identified using the longest significance run method. The relative messenger RNA expression level was determined using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS First, we genotyped 18 microsatellite markers between D10S1432 and D10S1239. The maximum nonparametric linkage score was 2.79 on D10S195. Through family clustering, we found the maximum nonparametric linkage score was 3.70 on D10S195 in the family cluster with deficits in attention and executive function. Second, we genotyped 79 single nucleotide polymorphisms between D10S1432 and D10S580 in 90 attention deficit and execution deficit families. Association analysis indicated significant transmission distortion for nine single nucleotide polymorphisms. Using the longest significance run method, we identified a 427-kilobase region as a significant candidate region, which encompasses nine genes. Third, we studied messenger RNA expression of these nine genes in Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastic cells. In schizophrenic patients, there was significantly lower expression of ANXA7, PPP3CB, and DNAJC9 and significantly higher expression of ZMYND17. CONCLUSIONS ANXA7, PPP3CB, DNAJC9, and ZMYND17 genes are potential candidate genes for schizophrenia, especially in patients with deficits in sustained attention and executive function. The responsible functional variants remained to be clarified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun Lin Branch, Yunlin, Taiwan
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Lin CH, Lane HY, Tsai GE. Glutamate signaling in the pathophysiology and therapy of schizophrenia. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2011; 100:665-77. [PMID: 21463651 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2011.03.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2010] [Revised: 03/14/2011] [Accepted: 03/28/2011] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Glutamatergic neurotransmission, particularly through the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, has drawn attention for its role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. This paper reviews the neurodevelopmental origin and genetic susceptibility of schizophrenia relevant to NMDA neurotransmission, and discusses the relationship between NMDA hypofunction and different domains of symptom in schizophrenia as well as putative treatment modality for the disorder. A series of clinical trials and a meta-analysis which compared currently available NMDA-enhancing agents suggests that glycine, d-serine, and sarcosine are more efficacious than d-cycloserine in improving the overall psychopathology of schizophrenia without side effect or safety concern. In addition, enhancing glutamatergic neurotransmission via activating the AMPA receptor, metabotropic glutamate receptor or inhibition of d-amino acid oxidase (DAO) is also reviewed. More studies are needed to determine the NMDA vulnerability in schizophrenia and to confirm the long-term efficacy, functional outcome, and safety of these NMDA-enhancing agents in schizophrenic patients, particularly those with refractory negative and cognitive symptoms, or serious adverse effects while taking the existing antipsychotic agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chieh-Hsin Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
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Ancín I, Santos JL, Teijeira C, Sánchez-Morla EM, Bescós MJ, Argudo I, Torrijos S, Vázquez-Alvarez B, De La Vega I, López-Ibor JJ, Barabash A, Cabranes-Díaz JA. Sustained attention as a potential endophenotype for bipolar disorder. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2010; 122:235-45. [PMID: 20105148 DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2009.01532.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Nowadays, it is accepted that to identify the biological basis of psychiatric illnesses it would be useful to deconstruct them into the most basic manifestations, such as cognitive deficits. The aim of this study was to set attention deficit as a stable vulnerability marker of bipolar disorder. METHOD Sustained attention was evaluated by the Continuous Performance Test (DS-CPT) in 143 euthymic bipolar patients and 105 controls. To estimate the influence of clinical profile in attention, patients completed a semi-structured interview. RESULTS Bipolar patients showed a deficit in attention during euthymic periods. This disturbance correlated with years of evolution, age of onset and age of first hospitalisation; and was not influenced by other clinical data. CONCLUSION Sustained attention may be considered as an endophenotype of the illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- I Ancín
- Clínico San Carlos Hospital, Biomedical Research Foundation, Madrid, Spain
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18
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Lin SH, Liu CM, Liu YL, Fann CSJ, Hsiao PC, Wu JY, Hung SI, Chen CH, Wu HM, Jou YS, Liu SK, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Chang CC, Yang WC, Lin JJ, Chou FHC, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG, Chen WJ. Clustering by neurocognition for fine mapping of the schizophrenia susceptibility loci on chromosome 6p. GENES, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR 2009; 8:785-94. [PMID: 19694819 PMCID: PMC4286260 DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-183x.2009.00523.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Chromosome 6p is one of the most commonly implicated regions in the genome-wide linkage scans of schizophrenia, whereas further association studies for markers in this region were inconsistent likely due to heterogeneity. This study aimed to identify more homogeneous subgroups of families for fine mapping on regions around markers D6S296 and D6S309 (both in 6p24.3) as well as D6S274 (in 6p22.3) by means of similarity in neurocognitive functioning. A total of 160 families of patients with schizophrenia comprising at least two affected siblings who had data for eight neurocognitive test variables of the continuous performance test (CPT) and the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) were subjected to cluster analysis with data visualization using the test scores of both affected siblings. Family clusters derived were then used separately in family-based association tests for 64 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering the region of 6p24.3 and 6p22.3. Three clusters were derived from the family-based clustering, with deficit cluster 1 representing deficit on the CPT, deficit cluster 2 representing deficit on both the CPT and the WCST, and a third cluster of nondeficit. After adjustment using false discovery rate for multiple testing, SNP rs13873 and haplotype rs1225934-rs13873 on BMP6-TXNDC5 genes were significantly associated with schizophrenia for the deficit cluster 1 but not for the deficit cluster 2 or nondeficit cluster. Our results provide further evidence that the BMP6-TXNDC5 locus on 6p24.3 may play a role in the selective impairments on sustained attention of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheng-Hsiang Lin
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Division of Genomic Medicine, Research Center for Medical Excellence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Li Liu
- Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Taiwan
| | | | - Po-Chang Hsiao
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Division of Genomic Medicine, Research Center for Medical Excellence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jer-Yuarn Wu
- National Genotyping Center, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shuen-Iu Hung
- National Genotyping Center, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Houh Chen
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Han-Ming Wu
- Department of Mathematics, Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yuh-Shan Jou
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shi K. Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzung J. Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming H. Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Wei-Chih Yang
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Molecular Medicine Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jin-Jia Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Chimei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
| | | | - Stephen V. Faraone
- Departments of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Ming T. Tsuang
- Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, and Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, California, USA
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei J. Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Division of Genomic Medicine, Research Center for Medical Excellence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
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Huang GH, Hsieh CC, Chen CH, Chen WJ. Statistical validation of endophenotypes using a surrogate endpoint analytic analogue. Genet Epidemiol 2009; 33:549-58. [PMID: 19194983 DOI: 10.1002/gepi.20407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Endophenotypes, which involve the same biological pathways as diseases but presumably are closer to the relevant gene actions than diagnostic phenotypes, have emerged as an important concept in the genetic studies of complex diseases. In this report, we develop a formal statistical methodology for validating endophenotypes. The proposed method was motivated by the conditioning strategy used for surrogate endpoints commonly seen in clinical research. We define an endophenotype to be "a trait for which a test of null hypothesis of no genetic heritability implies the corresponding null hypothesis based on the phenotype of interest". An index, the proportion of heritability explained, is used as an operational criterion of validation. Statistical inferences on this index are also developed. Usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated through computer simulations and a study of assessing the Continuous Performance Test as an endophenotype of the schizophrenia spectrum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guan-Hua Huang
- Institute of Statistics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
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Chkonia E, Roinishvili M, Herzog MH, Brand A. First-order relatives of schizophrenic patients are not impaired in the Continuous Performance Test. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2009; 32:481-6. [DOI: 10.1080/13803390903201777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Eka Chkonia
- a Department of Psychiatry , Tbilisi State Medical University , Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Maya Roinishvili
- b Department of Behaviour and Cognitive Functions , Beritashvili Institute of Physiology , Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Michael H. Herzog
- c Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Andreas Brand
- d Klinikum Bremen-Ost, Center for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Bremen, Germany
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Sepede G, Ferretti A, Perrucci MG, Gambi F, Di Donato F, Nuccetelli F, Del Gratta C, Tartaro A, Salerno RM, Ferro FM, Romani GL. Altered brain response without behavioral attention deficits in healthy siblings of schizophrenic patients: an event-related fMRI study. Neuroimage 2009; 49:1080-90. [PMID: 19646537 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2009] [Revised: 07/10/2009] [Accepted: 07/21/2009] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Attention deficits are common in schizophrenics and sometimes reported in their healthy relatives. The aim of this study was to analyse the behavioural performance and the brain activation of healthy siblings of schizophrenic patients during a sustained-attention task. Eleven healthy siblings of schizophrenic patients and eleven matched controls performed a Continuous Performance Test (CPT), during 1.5 T fMRI. The stimuli were presented at three difficulty-levels, using different degrees of degradation (0, 25 and 40%). There were no significant differences in CPT performance (mean reaction time and percentage of errors) between the two groups. Performance worsened with increasing degradation in both groups. Differences were found when comparing the BOLD signal change in the medial frontal gyrus/dorsal anterior cingulate, right precentral gyrus, bilateral posterior cingulate and bilateral insula. The most evident between group differences were observed in the left insula/inferior frontal gyrus: siblings showed a larger activation during wrong responses and a reduced activation during correct responses in the degraded runs. In conclusion, healthy siblings of schizophrenic patients showed differences in brain function in several brain regions previously reported in schizophrenic subjects, in the absence of behavioral attention deficits. The differences were greater in the two more difficult levels of attention demand and might be expressions of altered and/or compensatory mechanisms in subjects at increased risk for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianna Sepede
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Bio-imaging, G. D'Annunzio University of Chieti, Via dei Vestini 33, Chieti Scalo (CH), Italy.
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Liao SY, Lin SH, Liu CM, Hsieh MH, Hwang TJ, Liu SK, Guo SC, Hwu HG, Chen WJ. Genetic variants in COMT and neurocognitive impairment in families of patients with schizophrenia. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2008; 8:228-37. [PMID: 19077118 DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-183x.2008.00467.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
This study examined the relations of genetic variants in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene, including rs737865 in intron 1, rs4680 in exon 4 (Val158Met) and downstream rs165599, to schizophrenia and its related neurocognitive functions in families of patients with schizophrenia. Totally, 680 individuals from 166 simplex (166 affected members and 354 nonpsychotic first-degree relatives) and 46 multiplex families (85 affected members and 75 nonpsychotic first-degree relatives) were interviewed using Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies, administered Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Continuous Performance Test (CPT), and drawn for venous blood. Both categorical (dichotomizing families on affected members' neurocognitive performance) and quantitative approaches toward the WCST and CPT performance scores were employed using the family-based association test and the variance components framework, respectively. Both false discovery rate and permutations were used to adjust for multiple testing. The genotypes of rs4680 were associated with both the WCST and CPT performance scores in these families, but not with schizophrenia per se in either whole sample or subgroup analyses. Meanwhile, the other two single nucleotide polymorphisms were differentially associated with the two tasks. For WCST indexes, regardless of subgroup analyses or quantitative approach, only rs737865 exhibited moderate associations. For CPT indexes, rs737865 exhibited association for the subgroup with deficit on CPT reaction time, whereas rs165599 exhibited association for the subgroup with deficit on CPT d' as well as quantitative undegraded d'. Our results indicate that the genetic variants in COMT might be involved in modulation of neurocognitive functions and hence conferring increased risk to schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- S-Y Liao
- Genetic Epidemiology Core Laboratory, Division of Genomic Medicine Research Center for Medical Excellence, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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23
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Liu YL, Fann CSJ, Liu CM, Chen WJ, Wu JY, Hung SI, Chen CH, Jou YS, Liu SK, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Chang CC, Yang WC, Lin JJ, Chou FHC, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG. RASD2, MYH9, and CACNG2 genes at chromosome 22q12 associated with the subgroup of schizophrenia with non-deficit in sustained attention and executive function. Biol Psychiatry 2008; 64:789-96. [PMID: 18571626 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.04.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2007] [Revised: 04/21/2008] [Accepted: 04/21/2008] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In a previous linkage study of schizophrenia that included Taiwanese samples, the marker D22S278 (22q12.3) was significantly linked to schizophrenia (p = .001). METHODS We conducted fine mapping of the implicated genomic region, with 47 validated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers around 1 Mb of D22S278, in a Taiwanese sample of 218 pedigrees with at least 2 siblings affected with schizophrenia. We examined the association of these SNPs and their haplotypes with schizophrenia and with subgroups defined by the presence and absence of deficits in sustained attention as assessed by undegraded and degraded continuous performance tests (CPTs). We also examined subgroups defined by deficits in categories achieved in the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST). RESULTS Three of five candidate vulnerability genes (RASD2, APOL5, MYH9, EIF3S7, and CACNG2), which had marginally significant associations with schizophrenia, had significant associations with schizophrenic patients who did not have deficits in sustained attention on the undegraded CPT (RASD2 gene SNP rs736212; p = .0008 with single locus analysis) and the degraded CPT (MYH9 gene haplotype 1-1-1-1 of SNP rs3752463 - rs1557540 - rs713839 - rs739097; p = .0059 with haplotype analysis). We also found a significant association for patients who showed no deficits in executive function as measured by categories achieved in the WCST (CACNG2 gene haplotype 2-1-1-1 of SNP rs2267360 - rs140526 - rs1883987 - rs916269; p = .0163 with haplotype analysis). CONCLUSIONS The genes RASD2, MYH9, and CACNG2 might be vulnerability genes for neuropsychologically defined subgroups of schizophrenic patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Li Liu
- Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan
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24
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Correll CU, Smith CW, Auther AM, McLaughlin D, Shah M, Foley C, Olsen R, Lencz T, Kane JM, Cornblatt BA. Predictors of remission, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder in adolescents with brief psychotic disorder or psychotic disorder not otherwise specified considered at very high risk for schizophrenia. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 2008; 18:475-90. [PMID: 18928412 PMCID: PMC2779049 DOI: 10.1089/cap.2007.110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine predictors of diagnostic and symptomatic outcome in adolescents with either psychotic disorder not otherwise specified (PsyNOS) or brief psychotic disorder (BrPsy) followed in a schizophrenia prodromal program. METHODS As part of a naturalistic study of adolescents considered at clinical high risk for schizophrenia, 26 youths (mean age, 15.9 +/- 2.6 years, 65.4% male) with psychosis not fulfilling criteria for schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and diagnosed with PsyNOS or BrPsy were evaluated for predictors of diagnostic and symptomatic outcome after at least 6 (mean, 22.8 +/- 19.4) months follow up. RESULTS Progression to schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or psychotic bipolar disorder (n = 10, 38.5%) was predicted by fulfilling criteria for schizotypal personality disorder at baseline (p = 0.046). Development of schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (n = 7, 27.0%) was associated with worse executive functioning (p = 0.029) and absence of anxiety disorders (p = 0.027). Conversely, progression to bipolar disorder (n = 4, 15.4%), with (n = 3, 11.5%) or without (n = 1, 3.8%) psychosis, was associated with the presence of anxiety disorders (p = 0.014). Remission of all psychotic as well as attenuated positive or negative symptoms (n = 5, 19.4%) was predicted by Hispanic ethnicity (p = 0.0047), an initial diagnosis of BrPsy (p = 0.014), longer duration of antidepressant treatment (p = 0.035), and better attention at baseline (p = 0.042). CONCLUSIONS Results from this preliminary study suggest that patients with PsyNOS, BrPsy, or schizotypal personality disorder features in adolescence should be followed as separate risk groups in prodromal studies of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Executive function deficits and absence of anxiety disorders may be risk markers for schizophrenia, while presence of anxiety disorders may be linked to bipolar disorder risk. After achieving full remission, patients with sudden onset of psychosis and brief episodes could once be given the option of careful, supervised treatment discontinuation. The potential salutary effect of antidepressants during the psychotic prodrome and presence of characteristics differentiating patients at risk for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder should be investigated further.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph U. Correll
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York.,The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
| | - Christopher W. Smith
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York
| | - Andrea M. Auther
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York
| | - Danielle McLaughlin
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York
| | | | - Carmel Foley
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York.,The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
| | - Ruth Olsen
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York
| | - Todd Lencz
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York.,The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.,The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, and Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
| | - John M. Kane
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York.,The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.,The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, and Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
| | - Barbara A. Cornblatt
- The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore– Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York.,The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.,The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, and Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
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25
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Hill SK, Harris MSH, Herbener ES, Pavuluri M, Sweeney JA. Neurocognitive allied phenotypes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophr Bull 2008; 34:743-59. [PMID: 18448479 PMCID: PMC2632447 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbn027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 108] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Psychiatric disorders are genetically complex and represent the end product of multiple biological and social factors. Links between genes and disorder-related abnormalities can be effectively captured via assessment of phenotypes that are both associated with genetic effects and potentially contributory to behavioral abnormalities. Identifying intermediate or allied phenotypes as a strategy for clarifying genetic contributions to disorders has been successful in other areas of medicine and is a promising strategy for identifying susceptibility genes in complex psychiatric disorders. There is growing evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, rather than being wholly distinct disorders, share genetic risk at several loci. Further, there is growing evidence of similarity in the pattern of cognitive and neurobiological deficits in these groups, which may be the result of the effects of these common genetic factors. This review was undertaken to identify patterns of performance on neurocognitive and affective tasks across probands with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as well as unaffected family members, which warrant further investigation as potential intermediate trait markers. Available evidence indicates that measures of attention regulation, working memory, episodic memory, and emotion processing offer potential for identifying shared and illness-specific allied neurocognitive phenotypes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, very few studies have evaluated neurocognitive dimensions in bipolar probands or their unaffected relatives, and much work in this area is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. Kristian Hill
- To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 312 996-2107, fax: 312 413-8837, e-mail:
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26
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Filbey FM, Toulopoulou T, Morris RG, McDonald C, Bramon E, Walshe M, Murray RM. Selective attention deficits reflect increased genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2008; 101:169-75. [PMID: 18291626 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2008.01.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2007] [Revised: 01/08/2008] [Accepted: 01/16/2008] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Impairment in attention is prominent in schizophrenia and may be a valuable genetic indicator for vulnerability to this disease. AIMS We set out to characterize the attention deficits that may be associated with genetic liability to schizophrenia. METHODS We compared attention performance in 55 people with schizophrenia, 95 of their first-degree relatives, and 61 unrelated controls. We also segregated presumed obligate carriers of genetic risk (POCs, N=12) and compared their performance with that of controls. RESULTS Although the relatives of people with schizophrenia did not significantly differ from the normal controls on the tasks of attention, their scores were significantly ordered such that patients>relatives>normal controls during tasks of sustained and selective attention as measured by the Jonckheere-Terpstra Test (p<.05). Additionally, POCs were significantly worse than normal controls during selective attention tasks such as the Stroop (p=.03) and Letter Cancellation Task (p=.04). CONCLUSIONS Heterogeneity in the first-degree relatives may have diluted the attention deficits present in those who are at genetic risk for schizophrenia. On the other hand, our findings in the more homogeneous group of POCs suggest that selective attention may be an indicator of genetic liability for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca M Filbey
- Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF London, UK.
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27
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HTF9C gene of 22q11.21 region associates with schizophrenia having deficit-sustained attention. Psychiatr Genet 2007; 17:333-8. [DOI: 10.1097/ypg.0b013e328133f321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
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28
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Liu YL, Fann CSJ, Liu CM, Chang CC, Yang WC, Hung SI, Yu SL, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Liu CC, Tsuang MM, Wu JY, Jou YS, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Chen WJ, Hwu HG. More evidence supports the association of PPP3CC with schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 2007; 12:966-74. [PMID: 17339875 DOI: 10.1038/sj.mp.4001977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Calcineurin is a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase composed of two subunits, a regulatory subunit of calcineurin B (CNB) and a catalytic subunit of calcineurin A (CNA). PPP3CC is the gamma isoform of CNA located at the chromosome 8p21.3 region. To evaluate the association between PPP3CC and schizophrenia in the Taiwanese population, 10 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers across the gene were genotyped by the method of MALDI-TOF in 218 schizophrenia families with at least two affected siblings. One SNP (rs2272080) located around the exon 1 untranslated region was nominally associated with schizophrenia (P=0.024) and significantly associated with the expression of PPP3CC in lymphoblast cell line; the TT and TG genotype had significantly higher relative expression levels than the GG genotype (P=0.0012 and 0.015, respectively). In further endophenotype stratification, the single locus of rs2272080 and the haplotypes of both two-SNP haplotype (rs7833266-rs2272080) and seven-SNP haplotype (rs2461491-rs2469758-rs2461489-rs2469770-rs2449340-rs1482337-rs2252471) showed significant associations with the subgroup of schizophrenia with deficits of the sustained attention as tested by the continuous performance test (CPT, P<0.05) and the executive functioning as tested by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST, P<0.05). The results suggest that PPP3CC gene may be a true susceptibility gene for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y L Liu
- Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan
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29
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Birkett P, Sigmundsson T, Sharma T, Toulopoulou T, Griffiths TD, Reveley A, Murray R. Reaction time and sustained attention in schizophrenia and its genetic predisposition. Schizophr Res 2007; 95:76-85. [PMID: 17630256 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2007.05.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2006] [Revised: 05/08/2007] [Accepted: 05/23/2007] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Sustained attention is affected by schizophrenia. The simplest form of Continuous Performance Test (CPT-X) is a purer test of vigilance than more demanding variants but widely thought too insensitive to detect abnormalities in those with genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. We used a 7-minute CPT to compare 61 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, 45 of their never-psychotic relatives, and 47 control subjects. We found a significant impairment in stimulus discrimination in both patients (p=0.001) and their relatives (p=0.006). There was no difference in stimulus discrimination between relatives of patients with impaired and unimpaired stimulus discrimination. Relatives of patients with unimpaired stimulus discrimination were still inferior to controls (p=0.02). Reactions slowed in all groups equally as the test progressed. Patients showed increased mean reaction time (p<0.0001) and interquartile range (p=0.003). Relatives showed slower reaction times (p=0.01) but normal interquartile range. Groups did not differ in respect of individuals' fastest reaction times. We conclude that genetic predisposition to schizophrenia reduces performance even during a task placing minimal cognitive load on working memory and perceptual processing, suggesting impaired vigilance. Increased reaction time in the disease and its predisposition appear to be due to changes in response distribution rather than by a limitation of maximum speed. Our results raise the possibility of separating the cognitive components of vigilance, working memory and perceptual processing tapped by more demanding variants of the CPT, and draw attention to the need for consideration of dynamic neurocognitive processes in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Birkett
- Academic Clinical Psychiatry, Sheffield Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory (SCANLab), Section of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.
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30
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Gold JM, Fuller RL, Robinson BM, Braun EL, Luck SJ. Impaired top-down control of visual search in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2007; 94:148-55. [PMID: 17544632 PMCID: PMC1978542 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2007.04.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2006] [Revised: 04/20/2007] [Accepted: 04/24/2007] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
This study examined top-down and bottom-up control of attention in a group of 24 patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy volunteers. Participants completed a visual search task in which they reported whether a target oval contained a gap. The target was accompanied by 5, 11, or 17 distractors. On some trials, the target was identified by a highly salient feature that was shared by only 2 distractors, causing this feature to "pop out" from the display. This feature provided strong bottom-up information that could be used to direct attention to the target. On other trials, half of the distractors contained this feature making these distractors no more salient than the other distractors requiring greater use of top-down control to restrict processing to items containing this feature. Patient visual search efficiency closely approximated control performance in the first trial type. In contrast, patients demonstrated significant slowing of search in the second trial type, which required top-down control. These results suggest that schizophrenia does not impair the ability to implement the selection of a target when attention can be guided by bottom-up information, but it does impair the ability to use top-down control mechanisms to guide attention. These results extend prior studies that have focused on aspects of executive control in complex tasks and suggest that a similar underlying deficit may also impact the performance of perceptual systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- James M Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, PO Box 21247, Baltimore, Maryland 21228, United States.
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31
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Wang Q, Chan R, Sun J, Yao J, Deng W, Sun X, Liu X, Sham PC, Ma X, Meng H, Murray RM, Collier DA, Li T. Reaction time of the Continuous Performance Test is an endophenotypic marker for schizophrenia: a study of first-episode neuroleptic-naive schizophrenia, their non-psychotic first-degree relatives and healthy population controls. Schizophr Res 2007; 89:293-8. [PMID: 17055704 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.08.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2006] [Revised: 08/18/2006] [Accepted: 08/31/2006] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Sustained attention has been proposed as an endophenotype of schizophrenia, and consequently may be useful as a quantitative trait in genetic studies. In the present study, we used the continuous performance test (CPT) to measure sustained attention in 112 first-episode and neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients, 296 of their non-psychotic first-degree relatives, and 452 normal controls. Compared with controls, probands with schizophrenia showed worse performance on all measures of CPT. Parents, siblings and offspring of probands were also impaired on 'hit reaction time', an index of psychomotor processing speed of the correct response. Hit reaction time was also independent of the acute clinical features of the disease, indicating it is a trait rather than a state marker. Our findings supported the use of the hit reaction time measure of the CPT as an endophenotype marker for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiang Wang
- Psychiatric laboratory and Department of Psychiatry, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan Chengdu, PR China
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32
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Gur RE, Calkins ME, Gur RC, Horan WP, Nuechterlein KH, Seidman LJ, Stone WS. The Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia: neurocognitive endophenotypes. Schizophr Bull 2007; 33:49-68. [PMID: 17101692 PMCID: PMC2632287 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbl055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 264] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
The Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS) is a 7-site collaboration that examines the genetic architecture of quantitative endophenotypes in families with schizophrenia. Here we review the background and rationale for selecting neurocognitive tasks as endophenotypic measures in genetic studies. Criteria are outlined for the potential of measures as endophenotypic vulnerability markers. These include association with illness, state independence (ie, adequate test-retest stability, adequate between-site reliability, impairments in patients not due to medications, impairments observed regardless of illness state), heritability, findings of higher rates in relatives of probands than in the general population, and cosegregation within families. The COGS required that, in addition, the measures be "neurocognitive" and thus linked to neurobiology and that they be feasible in multisite studies. The COGS neurocognitive assessment includes measures of attention, verbal memory, working memory, and a computerized neurocognitive battery that also includes facial processing tasks. Here we describe data demonstrating that these neurobehavioral measures meet criteria for endophenotypic candidacy. We conclude that quantitative neurocognitive endophenotypes need further evidence for efficacy in identifying genetic effects but have the potential of providing unprecedented insight into gene-environment interaction related to dimensions of brain and behavior in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raquel E Gur
- Neuropsychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 10 Gates, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
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33
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Lin SH, Liu CM, Chang SS, Hwu HG, Liu SK, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Guo SC, Chen WJ. Familial aggregation in skin flush response to niacin patch among schizophrenic patients and their nonpsychotic relatives. Schizophr Bull 2007; 33:174-82. [PMID: 16936284 PMCID: PMC2632299 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbl038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Though a reduced flush response to niacin has been found in schizophrenic patients, whether it is a vulnerability indicator to schizophrenia remains little known. We aimed to examine the familial aggregation in niacin flush response among schizophrenic patients and their nonpsychotic relatives. In a sample of 153 schizophrenia probands, 217 parents, 70 siblings, and 94 normal subjects, 3 concentrations (0.001 M, 0.01 M, and 0.1 M) of niacin were applied to the forearm skin and the flush response was rated at 5, 10, and 15 minutes, respectively, with a 4-point scale. Both the heritability for continuous flush scores and the recurrence risk ratios for binary non-flush response in the nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenic patients were estimated, and ordinal logistic regression analyses of relatives' niacin response on probands' were further conducted to adjust for potential confounders. The greatest heritabilities ranged from 47% (0.01 M at 10 minutes) to 54% (0.1 M at 5 minutes). The risk ratios of 0.01 M at 10 minutes (ranging from 2.60 for using score 1 or less to 5.06 for using score 0 as non-flush) and 5 minutes (1.66 for using score 0 as non-flush) were significantly greater than one. Multiple ordinal logistic regression analyses further revealed that the association between probands and relatives in niacin flush response remained after adjustment for potential confounders, including age, sex, allergy, tobacco smoking, and coffee drinking. These findings provide support for the potential of niacin flush response as a vulnerability indicator to schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheng-Hsiang Lin
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xuzhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Min Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shu-Sen Chang
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xuzhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan
- Ju-Shan Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xuzhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shi K. Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzung J. Hwang
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming-Hsien Hsieh
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | | | - Wei J. Chen
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xuzhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 886-2-33228010; fax: 886-2-33228004, e-mail:
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Tsuang HC, Lin SH, Liu SK, Hsieh MH, Hwang TJ, Liu CM, Hwu HG, Chen WJ. More severe sustained attention deficits in nonpsychotic siblings of multiplex schizophrenia families than in those of simplex ones. Schizophr Res 2006; 87:172-80. [PMID: 16737801 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.03.045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2005] [Revised: 03/04/2006] [Accepted: 03/24/2006] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Sustained attention deficits measured by the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) have been proposed as an endophenotype of schizophrenia. However, little is known about whether sustained attention deficits in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients are associated with familial loading for schizophrenia. We examined 107 parents and 84 siblings of simplex schizophrenia families as well as 72 parents and 56 siblings of multiplex schizophrenia families, all nonpsychotic, using the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies and two sessions of the CPT (undegraded and degraded). The effect of perceptual load was assessed using the residual of the regression of the degraded score on the undegraded one. Statistical models that can adjust for familial correlations were used to compare the CPT performance of relatives between the two types of families. Siblings from multiplex families exhibited worse performance on the degraded CPT and less proficiency in processing the perceptual load than those from simplex families. No such difference was observed for the parents on either CPT version. We concluded that sustained attention along with perceptual load processing is more impaired in the siblings of schizophrenic patients with high familial loading and that this finding might be useful for future genetic dissection of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui-Chun Tsuang
- Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
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35
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Liu YL, Fann CSJ, Liu CM, Chen WJ, Wu JY, Hung SI, Chen CH, Jou YS, Liu SK, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Ouyang WC, Chan HY, Chen JJ, Yang WC, Lin CY, Lee SFC, Hwu HG. A single nucleotide polymorphism fine mapping study of chromosome 1q42.1 reveals the vulnerability genes for schizophrenia, GNPAT and DISC1: Association with impairment of sustained attention. Biol Psychiatry 2006; 60:554-62. [PMID: 16997000 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.04.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2005] [Revised: 04/21/2006] [Accepted: 04/25/2006] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The marker D1S251 of chromosome 1q42.1 showed significant association with schizophrenia in a Taiwanese sample. We used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) fine mapping to search for the vulnerability genes of schizophrenia. METHODS We selected 120 SNPs covering 1 Mb around D1S251 from the public database. These selected SNPs were initially validated if allele frequency was >10%. Forty-seven validated SNPs were genotyped in 102 families with at least 2 siblings affected with schizophrenia. RESULTS Two SNP blocks showed significant association with schizophrenia. Block 1 (five-SNP), located between intron 2 and intron 13 of the glyceronephosphate O-acyltransferase (GNPAT) gene, showed the most significant associations using single-locus TDT (z = -2.07, p = .038, df = 1) and haplotype association analyses (z = -1.99, p = .046, df = 1). Block 2 (two-SNP), located between intron 4 and intron 5 of the disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene, also showed the most significant results in both the single-locus (z = -3.22, p = .0013, df = 1) and haplotype association analyses (z = 3.35, p = .0008, df = 1). The association of the DISC1 gene with schizophrenia was mainly in the patient group with sustained attention deficits as assessed by the Continuous Performance Test. CONCLUSIONS Chromosome 1q42.1 harbors GNPAT and DISC1 as candidate genes for schizophrenia, and DISC1 is associated with sustained attention deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Li Liu
- Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Research, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan
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Abstract
Phenotypic variability and likely extensive genetic heterogeneity have been confounding the search for the causes of schizophrenia since the inception of the diagnostic category. The inconsistent results of genetic linkage and association studies using the diagnostic category as the sole schizophrenia phenotype suggest that the current broad concept of schizophrenia does not demarcate a homogeneous disease entity. Approaches involving subtyping and stratification by covariates to reduce heterogeneity have been successful in the genetic study of other complex disorders, but rarely applied in schizophrenia research. This article reviews past and present attempts at delineating schizophrenia subtypes based on clinical features, statistically derived measures, putative genetic indicators, and intermediate phenotypes, highlighting the potential utility of multidomain neurocognitive endophenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Jablensky
- Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
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Radek RJ, Miner HM, Bratcher NA, Decker MW, Gopalakrishnan M, Bitner RS. Alpha4beta2 nicotinic receptor stimulation contributes to the effects of nicotine in the DBA/2 mouse model of sensory gating. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2006; 187:47-55. [PMID: 16767415 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-006-0394-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2005] [Accepted: 03/22/2006] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Nicotine improves the deficiencies of sensory gating function in schizophrenic patients and in dilute brown non-Agouti (DBA/2) mice. This effect of nicotine has been attributed to activation of the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtype. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine whether the activation of another nAChR subtype, the central nervous system (CNS) prominent alpha4beta2 receptor, also contributes to the effects of nicotine on sensory gating in DBA/2 mice. METHODS Unanesthetized DBA/2 mice were treated either with nicotine, the alpha4beta2 antagonist dihydro-beta-erythroidine, the noncompetitive nAChR antagonist mecamylamine, or a combination of an antagonist and nicotine. Thereafter, gating was assessed by recording hippocampal evoked potentials (EP), which were elicited by pairs of auditory clicks. The EP response to the second click, or test amplitude (TAMP), was divided by the EP response to the first click, or condition amplitude (CAMP), to derive gating T:C ratios. RESULTS Nicotine significantly (p<0.05) lowered T:C ratios by 42%, while significantly increasing CAMP by 55%. After a pretreatment with dihydro-beta-erythroidine, nicotine still significantly lowered T:C ratios by 28%; however, the nicotine-induced increase of CAMP was blocked. Mecamylamine blocked the effect of nicotine on both T:C ratios and CAMP. CONCLUSIONS Activation of alpha4beta2 receptors by nicotine increases CAMP. However, under conditions where alpha4beta2 receptors are blocked, nicotine still lowers T:C ratios and may improve sensory gating, possibly through the activation of other nAChR subtypes such as alpha7. These effects of nicotine on auditory EPs may be indicative of a profile that would improve information processing in schizophrenia and other CNS diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard J Radek
- Neuroscience Research, Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Abbott Laboratories, Dept. R4N5, AP9A/LL, 100 Abbott Park Road, Abbott Park, IL 60064, USA.
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Davenport ND, Sponheim SR, Stanwyck JJ. Neural anomalies during visual search in schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients. Schizophr Res 2006; 82:15-26. [PMID: 16297598 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2005.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2005] [Revised: 09/12/2005] [Accepted: 09/14/2005] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives exhibit performance deficits on attention tasks, perhaps indicating genetic influence over attentional abnormalities in schizophrenia. To identify anomalous brain function associated with attention in individuals who likely have unexpressed genetic liability for schizophrenia, we studied electrophysiological characteristics of unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients during a visual serial search task. We gathered behavioral and electrophysiological data from 19 schizophrenia patients, 18 unaffected biological siblings of schizophrenia patients, and 19 nonpsychiatric control participants during performance of the Span of Apprehension (Span) task and a control task. Schizophrenia patients had lower Span task accuracy than the other two groups. Schizophrenia and sibling groups exhibited diminished late positive potentials (P300) over parietal brain regions during Span trials. Compared to control task stimuli, attentional demands of Span stimuli elicited augmented early negative potentials (N1, P2) over posterior brain regions. The degree of augmentation was reduced in schizophrenia patients but not in siblings compared to control subjects. Unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients appear to modulate early attentional functions of posterior brain regions more effectively than schizophrenia patients but show later electrophysiological anomalies suggestive of abnormal updating of task-relevant information. While the latter may reflect neural mechanisms predisposing performance deficits on attentional tasks, the former may reflect compensatory processes present in unaffected relatives of schizophrenia patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas D Davenport
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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Shashi V, Keshavan MS, Howard TD, Berry MN, Basehore MJ, Lewandowski E, Kwapil TR. Cognitive correlates of a functional COMT polymorphism in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Clin Genet 2006; 69:234-8. [PMID: 16542388 DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0004.2006.00569.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a common microdeletion syndrome associated with a markedly elevated risk of schizophrenia in adulthood. Cognitive impairments such as a low IQ and deficits in attention and executive function are common in childhood. The catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene maps within the deleted region and is involved in the degradation of dopamine, a neurotransmitter thought to be important in cognition and the development of schizophrenia. Thus, we examined the correlation between neurocognitive deficits and a common polymorphism Val(158)Met in the COMT gene in a cohort of children with 22q11DS. Our results show that children with 22q11DS who have the Met allele have higher IQ and achievement scores and perform better on measures of prefrontal cognition, such as the Continuous Performance Task, as compared with those with the Val allele. These results confirm that the hemizygous COMT Val(158)Met genotype impacts upon cognition in children with 22q11DS.
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Affiliation(s)
- V Shashi
- Department of Pediatrics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
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Hwu HG, Faraone SV, Liu CM, Chen WJ, Liu SK, Shieh MH, Hwang TJ, Tsuang MM, OuYang WC, Chen CY, Chen CC, Lin JJ, Chou FHC, Chueh CM, Liu WM, Hall MH, Tsuang MT. Taiwan schizophrenia linkage study: the field study. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2005; 134B:30-6. [PMID: 15685625 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.30139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
One possible reason of the inconsistent results of linkage analyses of schizophrenia, a complex disorder, was mainly due to the small sample size of studies. This Taiwan Schizophrenia Linkage Study (TSLS) was designed to collect a large family sample with at least two affected siblings of a single ethnicity. The 17.6 millions of Taiwanese Chinese, age over 15, was the sample population, and 78 psychiatric hospitals or health centers participated in this TSLS program. Before data collection started, every study subject signed the informed consent. The ascertainment protocol for data collection included blood sample, structured Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS), Structured Interview for Schizotypy (SIS), scales for assessment of positive and negative symptoms (SAPS, SANS), and continuous performance test (CPT), Wisconsin card sort test (WCST) of neuropsychological functions. We have contacted 831 families for this study and 607 families, comprised 2,490 subjects, were successfully recruited. The recruitment rate was 38.4% from the estimated total of 1,582 families with at least two affected siblings. These collected family samples were fairly evenly distributed all over Taiwan. Those 2,490 study subjects (1,283 male, 1,117 female) comprised 1,568 siblings (mean age 35.7 years old) and 922 parents (mean age 63.6 years old). Of these 1,568 siblings, 1,258 (80.2%) were affected (male 795, female 463), and the mean age of onset was 22.6 years old. Among 922 parents, 65 were affected (male 14, female 51) and the age of onset was 33.1 years old. This TSLS demonstrated a successful establishment of an efficient research infrastructure to collect a large nation-wise sample of schizophrenic family for genetic linkage study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hai-Gwo Hwu
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and Medical College, and Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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