Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Psychol Med. 2020 Feb;50(3):507-514. doi: 10.1017/S0033291719000382. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
Postmortem human brain studies provide the molecular, cellular, and circuitry levels of resolution essential for the development of mechanistically-novel interventions for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. However, the absence of measures of premortem cognitive aptitude in postmortem subjects has presented a major challenge to interpreting the relationship between the severity of neural alterations and cognitive deficits within the same subjects.
To begin addressing this challenge, proxy measures of cognitive aptitude were evaluated in postmortem subjects (N = 507) meeting criteria for schizophrenia, major depressive or bipolar disorder, and unaffected comparison subjects. Specifically, highest levels of educational and occupational attainment of the decedent and their parents were obtained during postmortem psychological autopsies.
Consistent with prior findings in living subjects, subjects with schizophrenia had the lowest educational and occupational attainment relative to all other subject groups, and they also failed to show the generational improvement in attainment observed in all other subject groups.
Educational and occupational attainment data obtained during postmortem psychological autopsies can be used as proxy measures of premortem cognitive function to interrogate the neural substrate of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
人体大脑死后研究提供了分子、细胞和电路层面的分辨率，对于开发精神分裂症认知缺陷的机械新型干预措施至关重要。然而，由于缺乏对死后研究对象的生前认知能力的衡量标准，因此对同一研究对象中神经改变的严重程度与认知缺陷之间的关系进行解释，是一个主要的挑战。
为了开始解决这一挑战，在符合精神分裂症、重度抑郁症或双相情感障碍以及未受影响的对照研究对象标准的死后研究对象（N=507）中，评估了认知能力的替代衡量标准。具体来说，在死后心理解剖期间，获取了死者及其父母的最高教育水平和职业成就。
与生前研究对象的发现一致，与所有其他研究对象组相比，精神分裂症患者的教育和职业成就最低，而且他们也未能表现出所有其他研究对象组中观察到的代际成就提高。
在死后心理解剖期间获得的教育和职业成就数据可以作为生前认知功能的替代衡量标准，以探究精神分裂症认知功能障碍的神经基础。
