O'Driscoll G A, Florencio P S, Gagnon D, Wolff A V, Benkelfat C, Mikula L, Lal S, Evans A C
The Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Psychiatry Res. 2001 Aug 25;107(2):75-85. doi: 10.1016/s0925-4927(01)00095-6.
Verbal memory deficits have been related to reduced volume of medial temporal structures in several neurological and psychiatric populations, including schizophrenic patients. Impairments in verbal memory have been proposed to be a marker of risk for schizophrenia. Recently, relatives of schizophrenic patients have been reported to have reduced volume of the amygdala-hippocampal complex. In this study, we evaluate the possibility that amygdala-hippocampal volume reductions may constitute one neural substrate of verbal memory deficits in first-degree relatives. Subjects were 20 healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients and 14 demographically similar controls. Verbal memory was assessed with the Logical Memory Test. Subjects were scanned with high-resolution MRI and the images were transformed into Talairach space. Volumes of interest were amygdala-anterior hippocampus and posterior hippocampus. Relatives of schizophrenic patients had intact immediate verbal memory but significantly poorer delayed verbal memory than controls. Relatives also had significantly reduced amygdala-anterior hippocampus volumes. Across all subjects, delayed verbal memory was significantly correlated with amygdala-anterior hippocampus volume. The magnitude of the correlation did not differ between the groups. These data provide an empirical link between memory performance and volumetric abnormalities in the amygdala-hippocampal complex in the relatives of schizophrenic patients.
在包括精神分裂症患者在内的多个神经和精神疾病群体中，言语记忆缺陷与内侧颞叶结构体积减小有关。言语记忆受损被认为是精神分裂症风险的一个标志。最近，有报道称精神分裂症患者的亲属杏仁核 - 海马复合体体积减小。在本研究中，我们评估了杏仁核 - 海马体积减小可能是一级亲属言语记忆缺陷的一种神经基础的可能性。研究对象为20名精神分裂症患者的健康一级亲属和14名人口统计学特征相似的对照者。采用逻辑记忆测验评估言语记忆。对研究对象进行高分辨率磁共振成像扫描，并将图像转换为Talairach空间。感兴趣的区域为杏仁核 - 前海马和后海马。精神分裂症患者的亲属即时言语记忆正常，但延迟言语记忆明显比对照者差。亲属的杏仁核 - 前海马体积也显著减小。在所有研究对象中，延迟言语记忆与杏仁核 - 前海马体积显著相关。两组之间相关性的大小没有差异。这些数据为精神分裂症患者亲属的记忆表现与杏仁核 - 海马复合体体积异常之间提供了实证联系。
