S M Lawrie

..It is important therefore to investigate the variability and reliability of morphometric measurements between different scanners and different sessions of the same scanner...

..None have been carried out for in-patient rehabilitation. We aimed to identify the factors that are associated with achieving discharge from in-patient rehabilitation by carrying out a case-control study...

..Previous studies have found these to be linked to psychotic symptoms (or psychotic symptom severity) particularly the presence of delusions and hallucinations...

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..The CaliBrain project was designed to provide for an assessment of scanner differences at three centres in Scotland, and to assess the practicality of pooling scans from multiple-centres...

..Our aim was to address these issues in a sample of young people receiving additional learning support...

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..Systematic studies are needed to evaluate which of a range of plausible approaches to the classification of psychosis is most useful before change could be justified...

..Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has demonstrated abnormalities of brain structure, particularly of the temporal lobes, in schizophrenia. These are thought to be neurodevelopmental in origin, but when they become evident is unknown...

..Whether these abnormalities of brain structure predate the onset of symptoms is not known...

..Numerous in vivo brain imaging studies suggest that cerebral structure is abnormal in schizophrenia, but implicate different regions to varying extents...

..Neurological 'soft signs' and minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are reported to be more frequent in patients with schizophrenia than in controls...

..Overall, the literature supports the view that there are measurable changes in brain structure and function during the genesis of the disorder, which provide opportunities for early detection and intervention...

..We provide examples of how these advances in our knowledge could lead to the development of new treatments for psychosis...

..The degree of atrophy was correlated with the number of HIS foci (r = 0.31, p = 0.014). Taken together with previous studies, these findings demonstrate the value of qualitative examination of MRI images in patients with schizophrenia...

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..We sought to address whether dorsal or ventral prefrontal gyrification is abnormal in bipolar disorder and to determine its diagnostic specificity and cognitive associations...

..However, no previous studies have compared hippocampal activation in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder directly...

..We have investigated healthy control participants to see whether there is a common neural system activated during such social decisions, on the basis that deficits in this system may contribute to the impairments seen in these disorders...

..We predicted that people with intellectual impairment and schizotypal features would exhibit amygdala volume reduction as one of the neuroanatomical abnormalities associated with schizophrenia...

..e. state effects)...

..Clinical schizophrenia has so far developed in 10 high risk subjects and in no controls. Possible confounding effects of drug or alcohol misuse were considered but were found unlikely to be important...

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..Particular risk factors for schizophrenia may interact at discrete time points of neurodevelopment with different effects on specific brain regions and may represent relatively distinct disease processes...

..CONCLUSIONS: Cannabis use, use of other illicit substances and upsetting life events may all lead to psychotic symptoms in vulnerable young people...

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..This finding is discussed in the context of NRG1 effects on neuronal migration, axon guidance and myelination...

..We also found reduced FA in the ALIC of both patients and subjects at high risk of schizophrenia when compared to controls. This may be a possible indicator of the higher vulnerability of relatives to develop the disorder...

..The findings suggest that this novel polygenic approach to examine brain-imaging data may be a useful means of identifying genetically mediated traits mechanistically linked to the aetiology of BD...

..We also investigated the association of the cingulate sulcus (CS) and paracingulate sulcus (PCS) variants with intelligence quotient (IQ)...

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..Abnormalities of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) sulcogyral patterns have been reported in schizophrenia, but it is not known if these predate psychosis...

..These differences are detectable with fMRI and may have clinical utility...

..Deficits in reversal learning (RL) have also been shown in schizophrenia but not in bipolar disorder. This study sought to assess the specificity of these findings in a direct comparison of clinically stable patients with each disorder...

..We conclude that substantial work needs to be done on standardising connectivity analyses across laboratories and that disconnectivity studies should be an integral part of drug discovery programmes...

..Investigation of sub-groups within these cohorts (e.g. age groups within or beyond the maximum age of risk) is recommended in order to identify deficits specific to the disease process...

..Alternatively, small numbers may have precluded detection of group by time interactions...

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..By contrast, reduced volume of the amygdalohippocampal complex seems to be associated with genetic risk for the disorder even in the absence of disease...

..We propose that the use of symptom factors may facilitate the investigation of the underlying mechanisms of psychotic illness...

..CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that deficits in sustained attention are not indicative of a genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, and are not associated with the occurrence of psychotic symptoms...

..These behaviours, however, are far less predictive of isolated psychotic symptoms prior to psychosis onset...

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..The present study examined longitudinal trends in prefrontal gyrification index (GI) in bipolar disorder and the effect of BDNF genotype...

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..The current study sought to investigate the neural correlates of depression in these subjects. We hypothesised abnormal activation of dorsolateral prefrontal regions in those at high risk with depression...

..The literature on predictors of conversion in people at genetic high risk is much smaller, but suggests a combination of baseline trait severity and further change in key measures...

..CONCLUSIONS: Previous demonstrations of hypofrontality in schizophrenia may reflect particular task requirements. Frontotemporal functional connectivity is reduced in schizophrenia and may be associated with auditory hallucinations...

..We sought to address these uncertainties in a prospective cohort study of people with bipolar I disorder...

..Further examination of specific sources of sulco-gyral difference in schizophrenia is required to clarify this...

..These findings are discussed in the context of the current literature, along with possible future research directions...

..To date, however, no studies have examined emotion processing in autism across a broad range of social signals...

..CONCLUSIONS: The findings of reduced white matter tract integrity in the left uncinate fasciculus and left arcuate fasciculus suggest that there is frontotemporal and frontoparietal structural disconnectivity in schizophrenia...

..This study sought to clarify the role of obstetric complications (OCs) and maternal recall bias for patients with first episodes of schizophrenia and those at increased risk of the disorder...

..These results suggest that what is inherited is not the disorder itself but a state of vulnerability manifested by neuropsychological impairment, occurring in many more individuals than are predicted to develop the disorder...

..We conclude that some abnormalities of pregnancy and delivery may be associated with development of schizophrenia. The pathophysiology may involve hypoxia and so future studies should focus on the accurate measurement of this exposure...

..We investigated whether the apparent decrease in amygdala activation in schizophrenia could actually derive from increased amygdala activation to the neutral comparator stimuli...

..Preliminary evidence in healthy control subjects has implicated genetic variation in the DAOA gene in the modulation of hippocampal complex and prefrontal cortex activation...

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..The authors sought to determine whether there are differences in language-associated prefrontal activation that discriminate bipolar disorder and schizophrenia...

..VBM has the facility to compare grey matter distributions in this structurally diverse cohort...

..control subjects. In contrast, first episode schizophrenia subjects had less GM than high-risk subjects in several frontal and temporal regions. These results are compatible with the findings of our previous volumetric ROI analysis...

..Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies suggest altered connectivity in both disorders. We aim to address the diagnostic specificity of white matter abnormalities in these disorders...

..Mild to moderate intellectual disability affects 2.5% of the general population and is associated with an increased risk of several psychiatric disorders. Most cases are of unknown aetiology although genetic factors have an important role...

..The study of high-risk groups and the development of schizophrenia...

..Together, these effects show significant differences in the neural substrate for fear processing with genetic variation in BDNF...

..Here, we focus on the growing literature relating genetic variation in the DISC1 pathway to functional and structural studies of the brain in humans and in the mouse...

..Recent theories have suggested that the inappropriate activation of limbic motivational systems in response to neutral stimuli may underlie the development of delusions in schizophrenia...

..BDNF may therefore be one of the heritable factors involved in the development of abnormal prefrontal function in schizophrenia. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc...

..These results suggest complex and changing patterns of structural-functional relationships in those subjects at high-risk of schizophrenia...

..It is suggested that in high-risk subjects, the change from vulnerability to psychosis may be preceded by reduction in size and deteriorating function of the temporal lobe...

..We illustrate how genetic variation in genes from these classes can contribute to the development of psychosis using data from the Edinburgh High Risk Study of schizophrenia...

..We examined the presence and location of ventral prefrontal abnormalities in a large sample of individuals with bipolar disorder and their relationship to gender, psychotic symptoms, and age...

..We also investigate associations between activation levels and symptom severity across the disorders...

..It is suggested that they may be detectable by simple means...

..These findings are consistent with the view that medial temporal lobe and in particular amygdala function is abnormal in schizophrenia...

..We show that this variant is associated with (i) decreased activation of frontal and temporal lobe regions, (ii) increased development of psychotic symptoms and (iii) decreased premorbid IQ...

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..In this article, studies on such individuals are discussed. It is concluded that deficits are apparent in relatives that are similar to but less marked than those seen in patients with schizophrenia...

..These particular reductions may therefore be able to predict the later onset of schizophrenia...

..A-GI is therefore a reliable measure of cortical folding that could be usefully applied to a number of MRI data sets of the brain in health and disease...

..Neuropsychological abnormalities in schizophrenia are well replicated and are present in unaffected relatives. Cognitive findings in bipolar disorder are less clearly established...

..Despite interest in early treatment of schizophrenia, premorbid and prodromal symptomatology remain poorly delineated...

..Genes for bipolar illness might have subtle effects on brain structure, which may need particularly large samples to detect...

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..This study sought to assess white matter density in patients and relatives with histories of bipolar disorder and/or schizophrenia...

..These connectivity abnormalities may underlie the diverse deficits seen in the established condition and the more subtle deficits seen in close relatives of those with the disorder...

..The hypothesis that schizophrenia is neurodevelopmental was investigated in a prospective study of young people with a postulated 10-15% risk for the development of schizophrenia...

..Structural brain abnormalities have been described in autism but studies are often small and contradictory. We aimed to identify which brain regions can reliably be regarded as different in autism compared to healthy controls...

..We examined the association between these measures in adolescents at enhanced risk of developing schizophrenia due to cognitive impairment...

..This study sought to examine these issues and clarify the associations of phenotypic expression and genetic liability...

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..These findings may provide a better understanding of the neural effects of DISC1 variants and on the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder...

..Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterised by delusions and hallucinations. Antipsychotic drugs does reduce these symptoms, but at least half of people given these drugs do not comply with the treatment regimen prescribed...

..This is consistent with a leftward shift of the inverted 'U' load-response model of cognitive function in schizophrenia...

..This study aimed to determine whether, within individuals at genetic high risk for schizophrenia, there are pre-existing differences in gyral folding between those who subsequently develop the disease and those who remain unaffected...

..Greater levels of brain anomalies are associated with greater levels of mental retardation as evidenced by IQ...

..These results are compatible with and extend the relevant findings of the previous volumetric ROI analysis, when allowing for the differences between the methods and interpretation of their results...

..CONCLUSIONS: In genetically predisposed subjects, the change from vulnerability to developing psychosis may be marked by a reduced size and impaired function of the temporal lobe...