27 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Impaired Prefrontal Synaptic Gain in People with Psychosis and Their Relatives during the Mismatch Negativity
The mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked potential, a preattentive brain response to a discriminable change in auditory stimulation, is significantly reduced in psychosis. Glutamatergic theories of psychosis propose that hypofunction of NMDA receptors (on pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons) causes a loss of synaptic gain control. We measured changes in neuronal effective connectivity underlying the MMN using dynamic causal modeling (DCM), where the gain (excitability) of superficial pyramidal cells is explicitly parameterised. EEG data were obtained during a MMN taskâfor 24 patients with psychosis, 25 of their firstâdegree unaffected relatives, and 35 controlsâand DCM was used to estimate the excitability (modeled as selfâinhibition) of (sourceâspecific) superficial pyramidal populations. The MMN sources, based on previous research, included primary and secondary auditory cortices, and the right inferior frontal gyrus. Both patients with psychosis and unaffected relatives (to a lesser degree) showed increased excitability in right inferior frontal gyrus across task conditions, compared to controls. Furthermore, in the same region, both patients and their relatives showed a reversal of the normal response to deviant stimuli; that is, a decrease in excitability in comparison to standard conditions. Our results suggest that psychosis and genetic risk for the illness are associated with both contextâdependent (conditionâspecific) and contextâindependent abnormalities of the excitability of superficial pyramidal cell populations in the MMN paradigm. These abnormalities could relate to NMDA receptor hypofunction on both pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons, and appear to be linked to the genetic aetiology of the illness, thereby constituting potential endophenotypes for psychosis
Recommended from our members
SU72. Abnormal Frontal Synaptic Gain Mediating the P300 in Patients With Psychosis and Their Unaffected Relatives
Abstract Background: The âdysconnection hypothesisâ of psychosis suggests that a disruption of functional integration underlies cognitive deficits and clinical symptoms. Impairments in the P300 potential are well documented in psychosis. We investigated intrinsic (self-)connectivity in a cortical hierarchy during a P300 experiment. We used Dynamic Causal Modeling to estimate how evoked activity results from the dynamics of coupled neural populations and how neural coupling changes with the experimental factors. Methods: Twenty-four patients with psychosis, 24 unaffected relatives, and 25 controls underwent EEG recordings during an auditory oddball paradigm. We analyzed 16 frontoparietal models (primary auditory, superior parietal, and superior frontal sources) and identified an optimal model of neural coupling, explaining diagnosis and genetic risk effects, as well as their interactions with task condition. Results: The winning model included changes in connectivity at all 3 hierarchical levels. Patients showed decreased self-inhibition (ie, increased cortical excitability) in left superior frontal gyrus across task conditions, compared to unaffected participants. Relatives had similar increases in excitability in left superior frontal and right superior parietal sources, and a reversal of the normal synaptic gain changes in response to targets, relative to standard tones. Conclusion: We confirmed that both subjects with psychosis and their relatives show a context-independent loss of synaptic gain control at the highest levels of the hierarchy. The relatives also showed abnormal gain modulation responses to task-relevant stimuli. These may be caused by NMDA-receptor and/or GABAergic pathologies that change the excitability of superficial pyramidal cells and may be a potential biological marker for psychosis
Genetic copy number variants, cognition and psychosis: a meta-analysis and a family study
Article
Open Access
Published: 27 July 2020
Genetic copy number variants, cognition and psychosis: a meta-analysis and a family study
Johan H. Thygesen, Amelia Presman, [âŠ]Elvira Bramon
Molecular Psychiatry (2020)Cite this article
561 Accesses
10 Altmetric
Metricsdetails
Abstract
The burden of large and rare copy number genetic variants (CNVs) as well as certain specific CNVs increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Several cognitive measures are purported schizophrenia endophenotypes and may represent an intermediate point between genetics and the illness. This paper investigates the influence of CNVs on cognition. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature exploring the effect of CNV burden on general intelligence. We included ten primary studies with a total of 18,847 participants and found no evidence of association. In a new psychosis family study, we investigated the effects of CNVs on specific cognitive abilities. We examined the burden of large and rare CNVs (>200âkb, <1% MAF) as well as known schizophrenia-associated CNVs in patients with psychotic disorders, their unaffected relatives and controls (Nâ=â3428) from the Psychosis Endophenotypes International Consortium (PEIC). The carriers of specific schizophrenia-associated CNVs showed poorer performance than non-carriers in immediate (Pâ=â0.0036) and delayed (Pâ=â0.0115) verbal recall. We found suggestive evidence that carriers of schizophrenia-associated CNVs had poorer block design performance (Pâ=â0.0307). We do not find any association between CNV burden and cognition. Our findings show that the known high-risk CNVs are not only associated with schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders, but are also a contributing factor to impairment in cognitive domains such as memory and perceptual reasoning, and act as intermediate biomarkers of disease risk
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, neural oscillations above 20 Hz and induced acute psychosis
Rationale: An acute challenge with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can induce psychotic symptoms including delusions. High electroencephalography (EEG) frequencies, above 20 Hz, have previously been implicated in psychosis and schizophrenia. Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the effect of intravenous THC compared to placebo on high-frequency EEG. Methods: A double-blind cross-over study design was used. In the resting state, the high-beta to low-gamma magnitude (21â45 Hz) was investigated (n=13 pairs+4 THC only). Also, the event-related synchronisation (ERS) of motor-associated high gamma was studied using a self-paced button press task (n=15). Results: In the resting state, there was a significant condition Ă frequency interaction (p=0.00017), consisting of a shift towards higher frequencies under THC conditions (reduced high beta [21â27 Hz] and increased low gamma [27â45 Hz]). There was also a condition Ă frequency Ă location interaction (p=0.006), such that the reduction in 21â27-Hz magnitude tended to be more prominent in anterior regions, whilst posterior areas tended to show greater 27â45-Hz increases. This effect was correlated with positive symptoms, as assessed on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) (r=0.429, p=0.042). In the motor task, there was a main effect of THC to increase 65â130-Hz ERS (p=0.035) over contra-lateral sensorimotor areas, which was driven by increased magnitude in the higher, 85â130-Hz band (p=0.02) and not the 65â85-Hz band. Conclusions: The THC-induced shift to faster gamma oscillations may represent an over-activation of the cortex, possibly related to saliency misattribution in the delusional state
Recommended from our members
A systematic review of associations between functional MRI activity and polygenic risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Genetic factors account for up to 80% of the liability for schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). Genome-wide association studies have successfully identified several genes associated with increased risk for both disorders. This has allowed researchers to model the aggregate effect of genes associated with disease status and create a polygenic risk score (PGRS) for each individual. The interest in imaging genetics using PGRS has grown in recent years, with several studies now published. We have conducted a systematic review to examine the effects of PGRS of SCZ, BD and cross psychiatric disorders on brain function and connectivity using fMRI data. Results indicate that the effect of genetic load for SCZ and BD on brain function affects task-related recruitment, with frontal areas having a more prominent role, independent of task. Additionally, the results suggest that the polygenic architecture of psychotic disorders is not regionally confined but impacts on the task-dependent recruitment of multiple brain regions. Future imaging genetics studies with large samples, especially population studies, would be uniquely informative in mapping the spatial distribution of the genetic risk to psychiatric disorders on brain processes during various cognitive tasks and may lead to the discovery of biological pathways that could be crucial in mediating the link between genetic factors and alterations in brain networks
Genetic copy number variants, cognition and psychosis: a meta-analysis and a family study
The burden of large and rare copy number genetic variants (CNVs) as well as certain specific CNVs increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Several cognitive measures are purported schizophrenia endophenotypes and may represent an intermediate point between genetics and the illness. This paper investigates the influence of CNVs on cognition. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature exploring the effect of CNV burden on general intelligence. We included ten primary studies with a total of 18,847 participants and found no evidence of association. In a new psychosis family study, we investigated the effects of CNVs on specific cognitive abilities. We examined the burden of large and rare CNVs (>200 kb, <1% MAF) as well as known schizophrenia-associated CNVs in patients with psychotic disorders, their unaffected relatives and controls (N = 3428) from the Psychosis Endophenotypes International Consortium (PEIC). The carriers of specific schizophrenia-associated CNVs showed poorer performance than non-carriers in immediate (P = 0.0036) and delayed (P = 0.0115) verbal recall. We found suggestive evidence that carriers of schizophrenia-associated CNVs had poorer block design performance (P = 0.0307). We do not find any association between CNV burden and cognition. Our findings show that the known high-risk CNVs are not only associated with schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders, but are also a contributing factor to impairment in cognitive domains such as memory and perceptual reasoning, and act as intermediate biomarkers of disease risk.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (G0901310) and the Wellcome Trust (grants 085475/B/08/Z, 085475/Z/08/Z). This study was
supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University
College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University
College London and by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for
Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation
Trust at Kingâs College London. Further support to EB: Mental Health
Research UKâs John Grace QC award, BMA Margaret Temple grants
2016 and 2006, MRCâKorean Health Industry Development Institute
Partnering Award (MC_PC_16014), MRC New Investigator Award
and a MRC Centenary Award (G0901310), National Institute of
Health Research UK post-doctoral fellowship, the Psychiatry Research
Trust, the Schizophrenia Research Fund, the Brain and Behaviour
Research foundationâs NARSAD Young Investigator Awards 2005,
2008, Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship, the NIHR
Biomedical Research Centre at UCLH, and the NIHR Biomedical
Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley
NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry Kingâs College
London. Further support to co-authors: The Brain and Behaviour
Research foundationâs (NARSADâs) Young Investigator Award
(Grant 22604, awarded to CI). The BMA Margaret Temple grant 2016
to JT. A 2014 European Research Council Marie Curie award to A
DĂez-Revuelta. HI has received funding from the European Unionâs
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie
Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 747429. A Medical Research
Council doctoral studentship to JH-S, IA-Z and AB. A Mental Health
Research UK studentship to RM. VB is supported by a Wellcome
Trust Seed Award in Science (200589/Z/16/Z). FWO Senior Clinical
Fellowship to RvW. The infrastructure for the GROUP consortium is
funded through the Geestkracht programme of the Dutch Health
Research Council (ZON-MW, grant number 10-000-1001), and
matching funds from participating pharmaceutical companies (Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen Cilag) and universities and
mental health care organisations (Amsterdam: Academic Psychiatric
Centre of the Academic Medical Centre and the mental health institutions: GGZ Ingeest, Arkin, Dijk en Duin, GGZ Rivierduinen,
Erasmus Medical Centre, GGZ Noord Holland Noord. Groningen:
University Medical Centre Groningen and the mental health institutions: Lentis, GGZ Friesland, GGZ Drenthe, Dimence, Mediant,
GGNet Warnsveld, Yulius Dordrecht and Parnassia psycho-medical
centre The Hague. Maastricht: Maastricht University Medical Centre
and the mental health institutions: GGZ Eindhoven en De Kempen,
GGZ Breburg, GGZ Oost-Brabant, Vincent van Gogh voor Geestelijke
Gezondheid, Mondriaan, Virenze riagg, Zuyderland GGZ, MET ggz,
Universitair Centrum Sint-Jozef Kortenberg, CAPRI University of
Antwerp, PC Ziekeren Sint-Truiden, PZ Sancta Maria Sint-Truiden,
GGZ Overpelt, OPZ Rekem. Utrecht: University Medical Centre Utrecht and the mental health institutions Altrecht, GGZ Centraal and
Delta). The Santander cohort was supported by Instituto de Salud
Carlos III (PI020499, PI050427, PI060507), SENY FundaciĂł (CI
2005-0308007), Fundacion Ramón Areces and Fundacion Marqués de
Valdecilla (API07/011, API10/13). We thank Valdecilla Biobank for
providing the biological PAFIP samples and associated data included
in this study and for its help in the technical execution of this work; we
also thank IDIVAL Neuroimaging Unit for its help in the acquisition
and processing of imaging PAFIP data
Tree hollows can affect epiphyte species composition
Correction in: Ecological Research, Volume 33, Issue 5, pages: 1079-1079, DOI: 10.1007/s11284-018-1595-z</p
Sensory gating deficits in the attenuated psychosis syndrome
Background: Individuals with an "Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome" (APS) have a 20-40% chance of developing a psychotic disorder within two years; however it is difficult to predict which of them will become ill on the basis of their clinical symptoms alone. We examined whether P50 gating deficits could help to discriminate individuals with APS and also those who are particularly likely to make a transition to psychosis. Method: 36 cases meeting PACE (Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation) criteria for the APS, all free of antipsychotics, and 60 controls performed an auditory conditioning-testing experiment while their electroencephalogram was recorded. The P50 ratio and its C-T difference were compared between groups. Subjects received follow-up for up to 2. years to determine their clinical outcome. Results: The P50 ratio was significantly higher and C-T difference lower in the APS group compared to controls. Of the individuals with APS who completed the follow-up (n = 36), nine (25%) developed psychosis. P50 ratio and the C-T difference did not significantly differ between those individuals who developed psychosis and those who did not within the APS group. Conclusion: P50 deficits appear to be associated with the pre-clinical phase of psychosis. However, due to the limitations of the study and its sample size, replication in an independent cohort is necessary, to clarify the role of P50 deficits in illness progression and whether this inexpensive and non-invasive EEG marker could be of clinical value in the prediction of psychosis outcomes amongst populations at risk
Housing Improvement Act Amendment Act, 1965, No. 31
Finding reliable endophenotypes for psychosis could lead to an improved understanding of aetiology, and provide useful alternative phenotypes for genetic association studies. Resting quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) activity has been shown to be heritable and reliable over time. However, QEEG research in patients with psychosis has shown inconsistent and even contradictory findings, and studies of at-risk populations are scarce. Hence, this study aimed to investigate whether resting QEEG activity represents a candidate endophenotype for psychosis