Thermenos Heidi W, Seidman Larry J, Breiter Hans, Goldstein Jill M, Goodman Julie M, Poldrack Russell, Faraone Stephen V, Tsuang Ming T
Department of Psychology and Brain Research Institute (RP), University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Mar 1;55(5):490-500. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2003.11.014.
First-degree relatives of persons with schizophrenia carry elevated genetic risk for the illness and show deficits on high-load information processing tasks. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether nonpsychotic relatives show altered functional activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), thalamus, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate during a working memory task requiring interference resolution.
Twelve nonpsychotic relatives of persons with schizophrenia and 12 healthy control subjects were administered an auditory, verbal working memory version of the Continuous Performance Test during fMRI. An asymmetric, spin-echo, T2*-weighted sequence (15 contiguous, 7-mm axial slices) was acquired on a full-body MR scanner. Data were analyzed by Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM).
Compared with control subjects, relatives showed greater task-elicited activation in the PFC and the anterior and dorsomedial thalamus. When task performance was controlled, relatives showed significantly greater activation in the anterior cingulate. When effects of other potentially confounding variables were controlled, relatives generally showed significantly greater activation in the dorsomedial thalamus and anterior cingulate.
This pilot study suggests that relatives of persons with schizophrenia have subtle differences in brain function in the absence of psychosis. These differences add to the growing literature identifying neurobiological vulnerabilities to schizophrenia.
精神分裂症患者的一级亲属患该病的遗传风险升高，并且在高负荷信息处理任务中表现出缺陷。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来测试非精神病性亲属在需要解决干扰的工作记忆任务期间，前额叶皮质（PFC）、丘脑、海马体和前扣带回的功能激活是否发生改变。
在fMRI期间，对12名精神分裂症患者的非精神病性亲属和12名健康对照者进行了听觉、言语工作记忆版本的持续操作测试。在全身MR扫描仪上采集了不对称、自旋回波、T2*加权序列（15个连续的7毫米轴向切片）。数据通过统计参数映射（SPM）进行分析。
与对照者相比，亲属在PFC以及前丘脑和背内侧丘脑中表现出更大的任务诱发激活。当控制任务表现时，亲属在前扣带回中表现出明显更大的激活。当控制其他潜在混杂变量的影响时，亲属通常在背内侧丘脑和前扣带回中表现出明显更大的激活。
这项初步研究表明，精神分裂症患者的亲属在没有精神病的情况下大脑功能存在细微差异。这些差异进一步丰富了有关精神分裂症神经生物学易感性的文献。
