H C Whalley

..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...

..Here, we examine the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature to determine the evidence for diagnosis-specific patterns of brain activation in the two patient groups...

..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...

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

..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...

..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...

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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...

..e. state effects)...

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..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...

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

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..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...

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

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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...

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

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

..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...

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

..This study is the first time relatives of individuals with schizophrenia have been imaged using a ToM paradigm, and the results provide evidence of both a state and state-mediated trait effect...

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

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

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..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...

..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...

..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...

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

..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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..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...

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

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

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

..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...

..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...

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

..In circumstances where a large volume of work precludes detailed volume measurement, simple methods are reliable and can be used instead...

..It is, however, a laborious process, and it remains uncertain whether it is more sensitive to early disease processes in pre-schizophrenia than are other image-analysis techniques...

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