H E Hulshoff Pol

..The findings are discussed in the light of two alternative explanations, namely, a central implicit memory process and a stimulus-level-based change at the peripheral level...

..These findings suggest aberrant inter-hemispheric connectivity of anterior cortical and sub-cortical brain regions in schizophrenia, reflecting decreased hemispheric specialisation in schizophrenia...

..Although structural brain abnormalities, particularly decrements in gray matter volume, are considered important to the pathology of schizophrenia, it is not resolved whether the brain abnormalities become more prominent over time...

..However, it is unknown whether the (progressive) loss of tissue affects the brain globally or whether tissue loss is more prominent in some areas than in others...

..In conclusion, task duration should be taken into consideration as a factor influencing odor discrimination in aging...

..Whether these changes are dependent on medication use or related to intelligence quotient (IQ) is still debated...

..The study was designed to examine the relative contributions of genetic and nongenetic factors to structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia and subjects at risk to develop the disorder...

..Moreover, smoking was not associated with brain volume change over time in the healthy subjects. However, extremely heavy smoking may contribute to excessive gray matter volume loss in schizophrenia...

..These results suggest that the cognitive abnormalities in schizophrenia that may be related to genotype are represented in the domain of executive functioning and to some extent in the domain of sensory-motor functioning...

..e. negative, positive, disorganization, mania and depression)...

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..This study investigated the relationship between outcome and structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia...

..This suggests that disintegrated fiber integrity in the connection between frontal and temporo-parietal language areas in the schizophrenia patients is associated with their liability for auditory verbal hallucinations...

..One of the main challenges for the coming years, however, will be the search for gene-by-environment interactions on the progressive brain changes in schizophrenia...

..These findings strongly suggest that psychosis contributes to brain volume reductions found in schizophrenia...

..Fluctuating asymmetry of the finger ridges was as important as whole brain and left hippocampal volumes in differentiating twins with a high susceptibility to schizophrenia from those with a low susceptibility...

..The high heritability estimates that were found indicate that brain volumes may be useful as intermediate phenotypes in behavioral genetic research...

..Before being able to intervene with therapies and prevent the brain from shrinking, one has to understand the underlying mechanism of the progressive changes in the brains of schizophrenia patients...

..Although brain volume changes are found in schizophrenia, only a limited number of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies have exclusively examined antipsychotic-naïve patients...

..These findings suggest that early dynamic brain volume changes are related to the disease process and predict the longer-term outcome of schizophrenia...

..Information on the correlation of normative reproductive hormone levels with physical development (Tanner stages) during puberty and on the influences of genes and environment on variation in these hormones and Tanner stages is limited...

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..The authors assessed the effects of nutritional deficiency during the first trimester of pregnancy on brain morphology in patients with schizophrenia...

..A total of 52 twins completed two IQ assessments: nine patients [three monozygotic (MZ) and six dizygotic (DZ)], 10 unaffected co-twins (three MZ and seven DZ) and 33 healthy control twins (21 MZ and 12 DZ)...

..In children who showed the most pronounced white matter growth, fractional anisotropy increased the least and vice-versa. Thus, white matter development in childhood may reflect a process of both expansion and fiber optimization...

..To critically review and integrate the existing literature on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the normally developing brain in childhood and adolescence and discuss the implications for clinical MRI studies...

..In the current study the authors examined whether this volume decrease was related to clinical improvement...

..Therefore PUFA may be involved in the excessive brain tissue loss reported in schizophrenia...

..Since other brain volume measures were comparable between the groups, twin studies can provide reliable estimates of heritabilities in brain volume measures and these can be generalized to the singleton population...

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