Schizophrenia Research RSS feed: Current Issue. As official journal of the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) Schizophrenia Research is THE journal of choice for international researchers and clinicians to share their work with the global schizophrenia research community. As of 2006, almost 4000 institutes have online or print (or both) access to this journal - the largest specialist journal in the field, with the largest readership! Schizophrenia Research's time to first decision is as fast as 32 days and its publishing speed is as fast as 7 weeks until online publication (corrected proof/Article in Press) after acceptance and 18 weeks from acceptance until publication in a printed issue during 2006. The journal publishes novel papers that really contribute to understanding the biology and treatment of schizophrenic disorders; Schizophrenia Research brings together biological, clinical and psychological research in order to stimulate the synthesis of findings from all disciplines involved in improving patient outcomes in schizophrenia. http://www.schres-journal.com/?rss=yesElsevier Inc.en © 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Schizophrenia Research0920-99641171March 2010 © 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. healthpermissions@elsevier.comhttp://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996410000629/abstract?rss=yesEditorial board10.1016/S0920-9964(10)00062-9Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-03-01Schizophrenia Research2010-03-011171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2IFCIFChttp://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006136/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Background: Recent genetic results have indicated that the two major, classically distinct forms of psychosis – schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – may share causative factors in common. However it is not clear to what extent they may also have similar profiles of brain abnormality. We used meta-analytic techniques to generate and compare maps of brain structural abnormality in the large samples of patients with both disorders that have been studied using magnetic resonance imaging.Method: A systematic search was conducted for voxel-based morphometry studies examining gray matter in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The anatomical distribution of the co-ordinates of gray matter differences was meta-analysed using Anatomical Likelihood Estimation.Results: Forty-two schizophrenia studies including 2058 patients with schizophrenia and 2131 comparison subjects were compared with fourteen bipolar studies including 366 patients with bipolar disorder and 497 comparison subjects. In schizophrenia, there were extensive gray matter deficits in frontal, temporal, cingulate and insular cortex and thalamus, and increased gray matter in the basal ganglia. In bipolar disorder, gray matter reductions were present in the anterior cingulate and bilateral insula. These substantially overlapped with areas of gray matter reduction in schizophrenia, except for a region of anterior cingulate where gray matter reduction was specific to bipolar disorder.Implications: In bipolar disorder studies there were consistent regional gray matter reductions in paralimbic regions (anterior cingulate and insula) implicated in emotional processing. Gray matter reductions in schizophrenia studies were more extensive and involved limbic and neocortical structures as well as the paralimbic regions affected in bipolar disorder.Anatomy of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: A meta-analysisIan Ellison-Wright, Ed Bullmore10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.022Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-13Schizophrenia Research2010-01-131171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers112http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409004745/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Recently, a great deal of interest has arisen in resting state fMRI as a measure of tonic brain function in clinical populations. Most studies have focused on the examination of temporal correlation between resting state fMRI low-frequency oscillations (LFOs). Studies on the amplitudes of these low-frequency oscillations are rarely reported. Here, we used amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF; the relative amplitude that resides in the low frequencies) to examine the amplitude of LFO in schizophrenia. Twenty-six healthy controls and 29 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder participated. Our findings show that patients showed reduced low-frequency amplitude in proportion to the total frequency band investigated (i.e., fALFF) in the lingual gyrus, left cuneus, left insula/superior temporal gyrus, and right caudate and increased fALFF in the medial prefrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. ALFF was reduced in patients in the lingual gyrus, cuneus, and precuneus and increased in the left parahippocampal gyrus. These results suggest LFO abnormalities in schizophrenia. The implication of these abnormalities for schizophrenic symptomatology is further discussed.Amplitude of low-frequency oscillations in schizophrenia: A resting state fMRI studyMatthew J. Hoptman, Xi-Nian Zuo, Pamela D. Butler, Daniel C. Javitt, Debra D'Angelo, Cristina J. Mauro, Michael P. Milham10.1016/j.schres.2009.09.030Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2009-10-26Schizophrenia Research2009-10-261171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers1320http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996410000071/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Schizophrenia has been associated with aberrant intrinsic functional organization of the brain but the relationship of such deficits to psychopathology is unclear. In this study, we investigated associations between resting-state networks and individual psychopathology in sixteen patients with paranoid schizophrenia and sixteen matched healthy control participants.We estimated whole-brain functional connectivity of multiple networks using a combination of spatial independent component analysis and multiple regression analysis. Five networks (default-mode, left and right fronto-parietal, left fronto-temporal and auditory networks) were selected for analysis based on their involvement in neuropsychological models of psychosis. Between-group comparisons and correlations to psychopathology ratings were performed on both spatial (connectivity distributions) and temporal features (power-spectral densities of temporal frequencies below 0.06Hz). Schizophrenia patients showed aberrant functional connectivity in the default-mode network, which correlated with severity of hallucinations and delusions, and decreased hemispheric separation of fronto-parietal activity, which correlated with disorganization symptoms. Furthermore, the severity of positive symptoms correlated with functional connectivity of fronto-temporal and auditory networks. Finally, default-mode and auditory networks showed increased spectral power of low frequency oscillations, which correlated with positive symptom severity. These results are in line with findings from studies that investigated the neural correlates of positive symptoms and suggest that psychopathology is associated with aberrant intrinsic organization of functional brain networks in schizophrenia.Resting-state functional network correlates of psychotic symptoms in schizophreniaAnna Rotarska-Jagiela, Vincent van de Ven, Viola Oertel-Knöchel, Peter J. Uhlhaas, Kai Vogeley, David E.J. Linden10.1016/j.schres.2010.01.001Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-25Schizophrenia Research2010-01-251171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers2130http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006197/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Objective: Hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia have strong emotional connotations. Functional neuroimaging techniques have been widely used to study brain activity in patients with schizophrenia with hallucinations or emotional impairments. However, few of these studies have investigated the association between hallucinations and emotional dysfunctions using an emotional auditory paradigm. Independent component analysis (ICA) is an analysis method that is especially useful for decomposing activation during complex cognitive tasks in which multiple operations occur simultaneously. Our aim in this study is to analyze brain activation after the presentation of emotional auditory stimuli in patients with schizophrenia with and without chronic auditory hallucinations using ICA methodology. It was hypothesized that functional connectivity differences in limbic regions responsible for emotional processing would be demonstrated.Methods: The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study compared neural activity in 41 patients with schizophrenia (27 with auditory hallucinations, 14 without auditory hallucinations) with 31 controls. Neural activity data was generated while participants were presented with an auditory paradigm containing emotional words. The comparison was performed using a multivariate approach, ICA. Differences in temporo-spatial aspects of limbic network were examined in three study groups.Results: Limbic networks responded differently in patients with auditory hallucinations compared to healthy controls and patients without auditory hallucinations. Unlike control subjects and non-hallucinators, the group of hallucinatory patients showed an increase of activity in the parahippocampal gyrus and the amygdala during the emotional session.Conclusions: These findings may reflect an increase in parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala activity during passive listening of emotional words in patients with schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations.Increased amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus activation in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations: An fMRI study using independent component analysisMaría Jose Escartí, Maria de la Iglesia-Vayá, Luis Martí-Bonmatí, Montserrat Robles, Jose Carbonell, Juan Jose Lull, Gracián García-Martí, Jose Vicente Manjón, Eduardo Jesús Aguilar, André Aleman, Julio Sanjuán10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.028Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-13Schizophrenia Research2010-01-131171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers3141http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006057/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Background: Working memory studies in schizophrenia (SZ), using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and univariate analyses, have led to observations of hypo- or hyperactivation of discrete cortical regions and subsequent interpretations (e.g. neural inefficiencies). We employed a data-driven, multivariate analysis to identify the patterns of brain–behavior relationships in SZ during working memory.Methods: fMRI scans were collected from 13 SZ and 18 healthy control (HC) participants performing a modified Sternberg item recognition paradigm with three memory loads. We applied partial least squares analysis (PLS) to assess brain activation during the task both alone and with behavioral measures (accuracy and response time, RT) as covariates.Results: While the HC primary pattern was not affected by increasing load demands, SZ participants showed an exaggerated change in the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal from the low to moderate memory load conditions and subsequent decrease in the greatest memory load, in frontal, motor, parietal and subcortical areas. With behavioral covariates, the separate groups identified distinct brain–behavior relationships and circuits. Increased activation of the middle temporal gyrus was associated with greater accuracy and faster RT only in SZ.Conclusions: The inverted U-shaped curves in the SZ BOLD signal in the same areas that show flat activation in the HC data indicate widespread neural inefficiency in working memory in SZ. While both groups performed the task with similar levels of accuracy, participants with schizophrenia show a compensatory network of different sub-regions of the prefrontal cortex, parietal lobule, and the temporal gyri in this working memory task.Working memory circuitry in schizophrenia shows widespread cortical inefficiency and compensationMiyoung A. Kim, Emanuela Tura, Steven G. Potkin, James H. Fallon, Dara S. Manoach, Vince D. Calhoun, Jessica A. Turner, FBIRN10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.014Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-22Schizophrenia Research2010-01-221171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers4251http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409004903/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: While psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are largely diagnosed on symptomatology, several studies have attempted to determine which biomarkers can discriminate schizophrenia patients from non-patients with schizophrenia. The objective of this study is to assess whether near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement can distinguish schizophrenia patients from healthy subjects. Sixty patients with schizophrenia and sixty age- and gender-matched healthy controls were divided into two sequential groups. The concentration change in oxygenated hemoglobin (Δ[oxy-Hb]) was measured in the bilateral prefrontal areas (Fp1-F7 and Fp2-F8) during the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) letter version and category version, Tower of Hanoi (TOH), Sternberg's (SBT) and Stroop Tasks.In the first group, schizophrenia patients showed poorer task performance on all tasks and less prefrontal cortex activation during all but the Stroop Task compared to healthy subjects. In the second group, schizophrenia patients showed poorer task performance and less prefrontal cortex activation during VFTs and TOH tasks than healthy subjects. We then performed discriminant analysis by a stepwise method using Δ[oxy-Hb] and task performance measures as independent variables. The discriminant analysis in the first group included task performance of TOH, VFT letter and VFT category and Δ[oxy-Hb] of VFT letter. As a result, 88.3% of the participants were correctly classified as being schizophrenic or healthy subjects in the first analysis. The discriminant function derived from the first group correctly assigned 75% of the subjects in the second group. Our findings suggest that NIRS measurement could be applied to differentiate patients with schizophrenia from healthy subjects.Discriminant analysis in schizophrenia and healthy subjects using prefrontal activation during frontal lobe tasks: A near-infrared spectroscopyMichiyo Azechi, Masao Iwase, Koji Ikezawa, Hidetoshi Takahashi, Leonides Canuet, Ryu Kurimoto, Takayuki Nakahachi, Ryouhei Ishii, Motoyuki Fukumoto, Kazutaka Ohi, Yuka Yasuda, Hiroaki Kazui, Ryota Hashimoto, Masatoshi Takeda10.1016/j.schres.2009.10.003Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2009-11-09Schizophrenia Research2009-11-091171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers5260http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409004216/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Background: Patients with schizophrenia have auditory gating deficits; however, little is known about P50 auditory gating to human voices and its association with clinical symptoms. We examined the functioning of auditory gating and its relationship with the clinical symptoms in schizophrenia.Methods: Auditory evoked magnetoencephalography responses to the first and the second voices stimuli were recorded in 22 schizophrenia patients and 28 normal control subjects. The auditory gating ratios of P50m and N100m were investigated and P50m-symptom correlations were also investigated.Results: Patients showed significantly higher P50m gating ratios to human voices specifically in the left hemisphere. Moreover, patients with higher left P50m gating ratios showed more severe auditory hallucinations, while patients with higher right P50m gating ratios showed more severe negative symptoms.Conclusions: The present study suggests that schizophrenia patients have auditory gating deficits to human voices, specifically in the left hemisphere and auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia may be associated with sensory overload to human voices in the auditory cortex.Auditory gating deficit to human voices in schizophrenia: A MEG studyYoji Hirano, Shogo Hirano, Toshihiko Maekawa, Choji Obayashi, Naoya Oribe, Akira Monji, Kiyoto Kasai, Shigenobu Kanba, Toshiaki Onitsuka10.1016/j.schres.2009.09.003Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2009-09-24Schizophrenia Research2009-09-241171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers6167http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006203/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Compared to the general population, people with schizophrenia are at risk of dying prematurely due to suicide and due to different somatic illnesses. The potential role of antipsychotic treatment in affecting suicide rates and in explaining the increased mortality due to somatic disorders is highly debated.A recent study of death registers in Finland compared the cause-specific mortality in 66,881 patients versus the total population (5.2million) between 1996 and 2006, suggesting that antipsychotic use decreased all-cause mortality compared to no antipsychotic use in patients with schizophrenia, and that clozapine had the most beneficial profile in this regard (). The benefits of clozapine were conferred by significant protective effects for suicide compared to perphenazine, whereas, a mixed group of ‘other’ antipsychotics, haloperidol, quetiapine and risperidone were reported to be associated with significantly higher all-cause mortality than perphenazine. By contrast, despite known differences in effects on cardiovascular risk factors, there were no significant differences between any of the examined antipsychotics regarding death due to ischemic heart disease. A number of methodological and conceptual issues make the interpretation of these findings problematic, including incomplete reporting of data, questionable selection of drug groups and comparisons, important unmeasured risk factors, inadequate control for potentially confounding variables, exclusion of deaths occurring during hospitalization leading to exclusion of 64% of deaths on current antipsychotics from the analysis, and survivorship bias due to strong and systematic differences in illness duration across the treatment groups.Well designed, prospective mortality studies, with direct measurement of and adjustment for all known relevant risk factors for premature mortality, are needed to identify risk and protective medication and patient factors and to, ultimately, inform clinical practice.Do antipsychotic medications reduce or increase mortality in schizophrenia? A critical appraisal of the FIN-11 studyMarc De Hert, Christoph U. Correll, Dan Cohen10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.029Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-11Schizophrenia Research2010-01-111171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers6874http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006070/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CV-RF) and disease (CV-D) in people with schizophrenia.Method: We conducted a period-prevalence study using a population-based cohort from Alberta administrative databases. Schizophrenia was identified using billing codes; all other individuals served as non-schizophrenic controls. Modifiable CV-RF (hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes) and established CV-D (acute coronary syndrome (ACS), chronic ischemic heart disease (IHD), heart failure (HF), stroke, arrhythmia) were identified using previously validated methods. Analyses were conducted using multivariable logistic regression.Results: From 1995 to 2006, 28,755 people (1.2%) were identified with schizophrenia and compared with 2,281,636 non-schizophrenic controls. Individuals with schizophrenia were older (mean age 47.6years vs. 45.3) and had lower socioeconomic status (59% received healthcare subsidies vs. 21%; OR: 5.55; 95% CI: 5.42–5.69) than controls. Of the CV-RF, diabetes was more common in those with schizophrenia than controls, particularly in younger males (ages 30–39, 3.8% vs. 1.4%, aOR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.30–1.91) and females (ages 30–39, 5.8% vs. 2.4%, aOR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.44–2.04). The prevalence of CV-D was significantly higher in people with schizophrenia than controls (27% vs. 17%, OR: 1.76; 95% CI: 1.72–1.81).Conclusions: On a population-wide basis, people with schizophrenia had a higher prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease than those without schizophrenia, particularly at a younger age. Female sex offered no cardiovascular protection in those with schizophrenia. Our data suggest monitoring for diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors should begin at the time of diagnosis of schizophrenia, particularly in females with schizophrenia.Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease in people with schizophrenia: A population-based studyLauren C. Bresee, Sumit R. Majumdar, Scott B. Patten, Jeffrey A. Johnson10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.016Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-18Schizophrenia Research2010-01-181171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers7582http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409005623/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is thought to play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. High magnetic field proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) provides a reliable measurement of GABA in specific regions of the brain. This study measured GABA concentration in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and in the left basal ganglia (ltBG) in 38 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 29 healthy control subjects.There was no significant difference in GABA concentration between the schizophrenia patients and the healthy controls in either the ACC (1.36±0.45mmol/l in schizophrenia patients and 1.52±0.54mmol/l in control subjects) or the ltBG (1.13±0.26mmol/l in schizophrenia patients and 1.18±0.20mmol/l in control subjects). Among the right handed schizophrenia patients, the GABA concentration in the ltBG was significantly higher in patients taking typical antipsychotics (1.25±0.24mmol/l) than in those taking atypical antipsychotics (1.03±0.24mmol/l, p=0.026). In the ACC, the GABA concentration was negatively correlated with the dose of the antipsychotics (rs=−0.347, p=0.035). In the ltBG, the GABA concentration was positively correlated with the dose of the anticholinergics (rs=0.403, p=0.015).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have directly measured GABA concentrations in schizophrenia patients using 1H-MRS. Our results suggest that there are no differences in GABA concentrations in the ACC or the ltBG of schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. Antipsychotic medication may cause changes in GABA concentration, and atypical and typical antipsychotics may have differing effects. It is possible that medication effects conceal inherent differences in GABA concentrations between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.GABA concentration in schizophrenia patients and the effects of antipsychotic medication: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy studyShin'Ya Tayoshi, Masahito Nakataki, Satsuki Sumitani, Kyoko Taniguchi, Sumiko Shibuya-Tayoshi, Shusuke Numata, Jun-ichi Iga, Shu-ichi Ueno, Masafumi Harada, Tetsuro Ohmori10.1016/j.schres.2009.11.011Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2009-12-21Schizophrenia Research2009-12-211171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers8391http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409003764/abstract?rss=yesAbstract: The excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) are a family of molecules that are essential for regulation of synaptic glutamate levels. The EAATs may also be regulated by N-glycosylation, a posttranslational modification that is critical for many cellular functions including localization in the plasma membrane. We hypothesized that glycosylation of the EAATs is abnormal in schizophrenia. To test this hypothesis, we treated postmortem tissue from the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices of patients with schizophrenia and comparison subjects with deglycosylating enzymes. We then measured the resulting shifts in molecular weight of the EAATs using Western blot analysis to determine the mass of glycans cleaved from the transporter. We found evidence for less glycosylation of both EAAT1 and EAAT2 in schizophrenia. We did not detect N-linked glycosylation of EAAT3 in either schizophrenia or the comparison subjects in these regions. Our data suggest an abnormality of posttranslational modification of glutamate transporters in schizophrenia that suggests a decreased capacity for glutamate reuptake.Abnormal glycosylation of EAAT1 and EAAT2 in prefrontal cortex of elderly patients with schizophreniaDeborah Bauer, Vahram Haroutunian, James H. Meador-Woodruff, Robert E. McCullumsmith10.1016/j.schres.2009.07.025Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2009-08-28Schizophrenia Research2009-08-281171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Research papers9298http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006240/abstract?rss=yesIt is with great interest that we read the article by Yoshida et al., recently published in Schizophrenia Research (). In the cross-sectional comparisons, the authors found smaller relative volumes in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy subjects in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and in the amygdala-hippocampal complex (AHC). However, no statistically significant progression of volume reduction in either the STG or AHC was observed. In addition, it was found that, in the schizophrenia group, volume change in the left anterior AHC was significantly correlated with negative symptoms identified through the PANSS. Yoshida et al. concluded that marked progression can be seen at the initial stage of schizophrenia, but less in chronic schizophrenia.Progressive volume reduction and its relation to the different stages of schizophreniaMaurits van den Noort, Peggy Bosch, Katrien Mondt, Sabina Lim10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.033Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-15Schizophrenia Research2010-01-151171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Letters to the Editors99100http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996409006252/abstract?rss=yesAlthough whether there are progressive brain changes in schizophrenia remains controversial (), progressive volume reduction of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) has been reported during the early stages of the illness (). However, the only region of interest (ROI) based longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of this region in chronic schizophrenia found no such changes (), suggesting a nonlinear pattern of STG reduction. We aimed to replicate this finding and further examine whether specific STG subregions show progressive changes in chronic schizophrenia.Lack of progressive gray matter reduction of the superior temporal subregions in chronic schizophreniaTsutomu Takahashi, Stephen J. Wood, Yasuhiro Kawasaki, Michio Suzuki, Dennis Velakoulis, Christos Pantelis10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.034Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-01-13Schizophrenia Research2010-01-131171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2Letters to the Editors101102http://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996410000691/abstract?rss=yesSIRS conference10.1016/S0920-9964(10)00069-1Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-03-01Schizophrenia Research2010-03-011171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2IIhttp://www.schres-journal.com/article/PIIS0920996410000708/abstract?rss=yesSIRS membership10.1016/S0920-9964(10)00070-8Schizophrenia Research 117, 1 (2010)2010-03-01Schizophrenia Research2010-03-011171S0920-9964(10)X0003-2IIII