This research will examine relationships between brain structure and cognitive performance in young schizophrenic patients. The core research hypothesis is that deficits in transferring information into long-term memory in schizophrenia are related to hippocampal volume. The specificity of this association will be evaluated through multivariate analysis of other brain structures and other information-processing tasks. The project piggy-backs on an ongoing longitudinal study of schizophrenic subjects with a recent first episode of psychosis, taking advantage of the numerous features of that project including excellent diagnostic evaluation, ongoing careful assessment with specialized information-processing and neuropsychological measures, and a well-characterized comparison sample of normals. The project will use high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and state-of-the-art measures of memory, early information- processing components, and attention. Both the cognitive neuropsychological and brain morphological measures will be obtained during a period of symptomatic stability early in the course of illness, and patients will be treated with a standardized medication protocol. Thus, findings will not be confounded by secondary effects of acute or long-term medication usage, clinical state, or other factors associated with chronicity. The project builds on literature suggesting that transfer to long-term memory is functionally related to the hippocampus and that working memory is related to both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Pilot data confirmed a significant correlation between hippocampal volume and one measure of the impact of distraction on memory. The current project addresses a number of methodological limitations in our previous pilot work, including highly variable time lapses between cognitive and MR assessments, lack of whole brain measures, variance in time since illness onset, and use of only limited memory assessment.
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