External cues improve visual working memory encoding in the presence of salient distractors in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: People with schizophrenia (PSZ) are impaired in attentional prioritization of non-salient but relevant stimuli over salient distractors during visual working memory (VWM) encoding. Conversely, guidance of top-down attention by external predictive cues is intact. Yet, it is unknown whether this preserved ability can help PSZ encode more information in the presence of salient distractors. METHODS: We employed a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor patches with differing orientations in 66 PSZ and 74 healthy controls (HCS). Two Gabor patches flickered which were designated either as targets or distractors and either a predictive or a non-predictive cue was displayed to manipulate top-down attention, resulting in four conditions. RESULTS: We observed significant effects of group, salience and cue as well as significant interactions of salience by cue, group by salience and group by cue. Across all conditions, PSZ stored significantly less information in VWM than HCS. PSZ stored significantly less non-flickering than flickering information with a non-predictive cue. However, PSZ stored significantly more flickering and non-flickering information with a predictive cue. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that control of attentional selection is impaired in schizophrenia. We demonstrate that additional top-down information significantly improves performance in PSZ. The observed deficit in attentional control suggests a disturbance of GABAergic inhibition in early visual areas. Moreover, our findings are indicative of a mechanism for enhancing attentional control in PSZ, which could be utilized by pro-cognitive interventions. Thus, the current paradigm is suitable to reveal both preserved and compromised cognitive component processes in schizophrenia.

Effects of Early Clozapine Treatment on Remission Rates in Acute Schizophrenia (The EARLY Trial): Protocol of a Randomized-Controlled Multicentric Trial.

BACKGROUND: Quick symptomatic remission after the onset of psychotic symptoms is critical in schizophrenia treatment, determining the subsequent disease course and recovery. In this context, only every second patient with acute schizophrenia achieves symptomatic remission within three months of initiating antipsychotic treatment. The potential indication extension of clozapine-the most effective antipsychotic-to be introduced at an earlier stage (before treatment-resistance) is supported by several lines of evidence, but respective clinical trials are lacking. METHODS: Two hundred-twenty patients with acute non-treatment-resistant schizophrenia will be randomized in this double-blind, 8-week parallel-group multicentric trial to either clozapine or olanzapine. The primary endpoint is the number of patients in symptomatic remission at the end of week 8 according to international consensus criteria ('Andreasen criteria'). Secondary endpoints and other assessments comprise a comprehensive safety assessment (i. e., myocarditis screening), changes in psychopathology, global functioning, cognition, affective symptoms and quality of life, and patients' and relatives' views on treatment. DISCUSSION: This multicentre trial aims to examine whether clozapine is more effective than a highly effective second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), olanzapine, in acute schizophrenia patients who do not meet the criteria for treatment-naïve or treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Increasing the likelihood to achieve symptomatic remission in acute schizophrenia can improve the overall outcome, reduce disease-associated burden and potentially prevent mid- and long-term disease chronicity.

Uncovering associations between mental illness diagnosis, nitric oxide synthase gene variation, and peripheral nitric oxide concentration.

Nitric oxide (NO) signalling has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several mental illnesses; however, its specific contribution remains unclear. We investigated whether peripheral NO concentration is associated with specific diagnoses, and whether there is a correlation with genetic variation in NO synthase (NOS) genes. We included 185 participants in the study; 52 healthy controls, 43 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, 41 bipolar disorder (BPD) patients, and 49 schizophrenia (SCZ) patients. Clinical, genetic, and biochemical data were collected at admission to a psychiatric hospital and at discharge. Serum was used to quantify concentration of the stable NO metabolites nitrite and nitrate. Individuals were genotyped for the NOS1 exon 1f variable number of tandem repeats 1 (VNTR1) polymorphism, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the NOS1, NOS1AP and NOS3 genes. At admission, SCZ patients were found to have significantly higher peripheral NO metabolite (NOx-) concentrations compared to healthy controls, MDD and BPD patients. NOS1 exon 1f VNTR1 short allele carriers were found to have significantly increased NOx- concentration. Moreover, this result was still significant in patients even at discharge. The data also revealed that patients who did not remit in their depressive symptoms had significantly increased NOx- concentration compared to remitters at discharge, supported by the finding of a significant positive correlation between depression symptom severity and NOx- concentration. Taken together, it is possible that elevated peripheral NOx- concentration is associated with increased severity of psychopathology, potentially due to NOS1 exon1f VNTR1 genotype. Our results further implicate NO signalling in mental illness pathogenesis, supporting its possible use as a peripheral biomarker, and imply that NOS genotype may play a significant role in regulating peripheral NOx- concentration.

Test-retest reliability of prepulse inhibition (PPI) and PPI correlation with working memory.

OBJECTIVE: Sensorimotor gating is experimentally operationalized by the prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response (SR). Previous studies suggest high test-retest reliability of PPI and potential correlation with working memory (WM). Here, we aimed to validate and extend the test-retest reliability of PPI in healthy humans and its correlation with WM performance. METHODS: We applied an acoustic startle PPI paradigm with four different prepulse intensities (64, 68, 72 and 76 dB) and two different WM tasks [n-back, change detection task (CDT)] in a group of 26 healthy adults (final sample size n = 23). To assess test-retest reliability, we performed all tests on two separate days ~27 days (range: 21-32 days) apart. RESULTS: We were able to confirm high test-retest reliability of the PPI with a mean intraclass correlation (ICC) of > 0.80 and significant positive correlation of PPI with n-back but not with CDT performance. Detailed analysis showed that PPI across all prepulse intensities significantly correlated with both the 2-back and 0-back conditions, suggesting regulation by cross-conditional processes (e.g. attention). However, when removing the 0-back component from the 2-back data, we found a specific and significant correlation with WM for the 76-dB PPI condition. CONCLUSION: With the present study, we were able to confirm the high test-retest reliability of the PPI in humans and could validate and expand on its correlation with WM performance.

[Medical education in psychosocial disciplines in times of the COVID-19 pandemic - first experiences]. / Lehre in den psychosozialen medizinischen Fächern in Zeiten der COVID-19-Pandemie ­ erste Erfahrungen.

AIM: In specialties that heavily rely on communication skills such as psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine, teaching in times of the COVID-19 pandemic is especially challenging. In this overview, educators and course directors report their experiences in eteaching and share their innovative solutions. METHODS: We present a collection of methods that relate to teaching and assessment as well as student activation. RESULTS: A range of helpful tools for teaching were compiled. This includes instructional videos with simulated patients, structured homework to document a mental status examination, structured hand-offs, and practical examinations in video format. Motivational techniques include podcasts with interviews with clinicians and patients and teaching with the use of cinematic material. DISCUSSION: Switching to online formats creates opportunities and advantages for the advancement of time- and location-independent learning. A fast conversion in this direction might also pose some disadvantages. A direct patient-student interaction is critical for engaging with transference, countertransference and situational aspects for teaching in psychosocial disciplines. Empirical studies of the effectiveness of these newly developed formats and faculty development for digital teaching are necessary.

Violent aggression predicted by multiple pre-adult environmental hits.

Early exposure to negative environmental impact shapes individual behavior and potentially contributes to any mental disease. We reported previously that accumulated environmental risk markedly decreases age at schizophrenia onset. Follow-up of matched extreme group individuals (≤1 vs. ≥3 risks) unexpectedly revealed that high-risk subjects had >5 times greater probability of forensic hospitalization. In line with longstanding sociological theories, we hypothesized that risk accumulation before adulthood induces violent aggression and criminal conduct, independent of mental illness. We determined in 6 independent cohorts (4 schizophrenia and 2 general population samples) pre-adult risk exposure, comprising urbanicity, migration, physical and sexual abuse as primary, and cannabis or alcohol as secondary hits. All single hits by themselves were marginally associated with higher violent aggression. Most strikingly, however, their accumulation strongly predicted violent aggression (odds ratio 10.5). An epigenome-wide association scan to detect differential methylation of blood-derived DNA of selected extreme group individuals yielded overall negative results. Conversely, determination in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of histone-deacetylase1 mRNA as 'umbrella mediator' of epigenetic processes revealed an increase in the high-risk group, suggesting lasting epigenetic alterations. Together, we provide sound evidence of a disease-independent unfortunate relationship between well-defined pre-adult environmental hits and violent aggression, calling for more efficient prevention.

Impact of a Changing Population Structure and Clustering of Cancer in Prostate Cancer Patients Depending on a First-Degree Family History.

INTRODUCTION: In the last century, there have been major changes within the population structure in Germany. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a changing population structure on identification of familial prostate cancer (PCa), and to investigate how many and which types of other cancers have occurred in patients and their first-degree relatives. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 19,540 patients were evaluated in a prospectively collected PCa family database and divided into four birth cohorts: 1925-1934 (cohort A), 1935-1944 (cohort B), 1945-1954 (cohort C), and 1955-1964 (cohort D). Other primary cancers and cancers of first-degree relatives were evaluated. RESULTS: The percentage of PCa patients with ≥2 sons declined (A: 28.9% to D: 21.6%). The percentage of patients whose fathers lived for ≥65 years increased (B: 64.2% to D: 73.0%). Malignancies of the skin, the urinary tract, and the lymphoid/hematopoietic tissue were more common in patients with a positive first-degree PCa family history and their first-degree relatives. Additionally, first-degree relatives reported more often neoplasms of respiratory/intrathoracic organs and the female breast. CONCLUSIONS: A small family size, an early deceased father, and a high number of sporadic cases complicate the identification of familial PCa patients. Thus, a detailed family history should also include unaffected first-degree relatives to avoid any misclassification. Findings of other primary cancers in patients and their relatives warrant further investigation.

Visual working memory encoding in schizophrenia and first-degree relatives: neurofunctional abnormalities and impaired consolidation.

BACKGROUND: Working memory (WM) deficits in schizophrenia (SCZ) have been linked to impairments in the encoding phase that are associated with aberrant neuronal functioning. Similar abnormalities have been observed in unaffected first-degree relatives (REL) and are thus discussed as candidate endophenotypes. The process of WM consolidation - i.e. the formation of durable WM representations - is assumed to be impaired in SCZ, but no study has investigated WM consolidation and neuronal correlates of visual WM encoding in REL before. METHOD: We examined whole-brain activation during the encoding phase with an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study design in 25 SCZ subjects, 22 REL subjects, and 25 healthy controls. Subjects performed a visual masked change detection task that assessed WM performance and consolidation. RESULTS: SCZ showed deficient WM performance indicating an impairment consolidation process, accompanied by broad neuronal hypoactivation, most prominently in frontal brain regions, as well as increased activity of the anterior cingulate during the encoding phase. REL showed decreased neuronal activity in the middle and medial frontal gyrus and increased activity in the precentral gyrus and insula during encoding, but no significant behavioral deficits were observed. In respect of given consolidation times, REL showed a shift from decreased frontal activity at short time intervals to increased frontal activity at longer time intervals. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest WM consolidation may be slowed in REL so that the deployment of compensatory neuronal resources during encoding is needed to assure proper WM performance. This supports the view of WM-related neuronal dysfunctions as a potential endophenotypic marker.

Establishing an effective dose for chronic intracerebroventricular administration of clozapine in mice.

OBJECTIVE: Despite its numerous side effects, clozapine is still the most effective antipsychotics making it an ideal reference substance to validate the efficacy of novel compounds for the treatment of schizophrenia. However, blood-brain barrier permeability for most new molecular entities is unknown, requiring central delivery. Thus, we performed a dose-finding study for chronic intracerebroventricular (icv) delivery of clozapine in mice. METHODS: Specifically, we implanted wild-type C57BL/6J mice with osmotic minipumps (Alzet) delivering clozapine at a rate of 0.15 µl/h at different concentrations (0, 3.5, 7 and 14 mg/ml, i.e. 0, 12.5, 25 and 50 µg/day). Mice were tested weekly in a modified SHIRPA paradigm, for locomotor activity in the open field and for prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response (ASR) for a period of 3 weeks. RESULTS: None of the clozapine concentrations caused neurological deficits or evident gross behavioural alterations in the SHIRPA paradigm. In male mice, clozapine had no significant effect on locomotor activity or PPI of the ASR. In female mice, the 7 and 14 mg/ml dose of clozapine significantly affected both open field activity and PPI, while 3.5 mg/ml of clozapine increased PPI but had no effects on locomotor activity. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that 7 mg/ml may be the optimal dose for chronic icv delivery of clozapine in mice, allowing comparison to screen for novel antipsychotic compounds.

The When and Where of Working Memory Dysfunction in Early-Onset Schizophrenia-A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Behavioral evidence indicates that working memory (WM) in schizophrenia is already impaired at the encoding stage. However, the neurophysiological basis of this primary deficit remains poorly understood. Using event-related fMRI, we assessed differences in brain activation and functional connectivity during the encoding, maintenance and retrieval stages of a visual WM task with 3 levels of memory load in 17 adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) and 17 matched controls. The amount of information patients could store in WM was reduced at all memory load levels. During encoding, activation in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and extrastriate visual cortex, which in controls positively correlated with the amount of stored information, was reduced in patients. Additionally, patients showed disturbed functional connectivity between prefrontal and visual areas. During retrieval, right inferior VLPFC hyperactivation was correlated with hypoactivation of left VLPFC in patients during encoding. Visual WM encoding is disturbed by a failure to adequately engage a visual-prefrontal network critical for the transfer of perceptual information into WM. Prefrontal hyperactivation appears to be a secondary consequence of this primary deficit. Isolating the component processes of WM can lead to more specific neurophysiological markers for translational efforts seeking to improve the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

When, Why and How to Re-challenge Clozapine in Schizophrenia Following Myocarditis.

Clozapine-induced myocarditis (CIM) is among the most important adverse events limiting the use of clozapine as the most effective treatment for schizophrenia. CIM necessitates the immediate termination of clozapine, often resulting in its permanent discontinuation with considerable detrimental effects on patients' psychopathology and long-term outcome. Consequently, a clozapine re-challenge after CIM is increasingly regarded as a viable alternative, with published reports indicating a success rate of approximately 60%. However, published cases of re-challenges after CIM remain limited. Here, we provide a narrative review of the current state of research regarding the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, diagnosis and clinical management of CIM as well as a synthesis of current recommendations for re-challenging patients after CIM. This includes a step-by-step guide for this crucial procedure based on the current evidence regarding the pathophysiology and risk factors for CIM. Slow dose titration regimes and addressing risk factors including concomitant valproate and olanzapine are crucial both to prevent CIM and to ensure a safe and successful re-challenge. Furthermore, we discuss the utility of C-reactive protein, troponin, N-terminal-pro hormone and brain natriuretic peptide, therapeutic drug-monitoring and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for CIM screening and diagnosis as well as for post-CIM re-challenges.

Second to none: rationale, timing, and clinical management of clozapine use in schizophrenia.

Despite its enduring relevance as the single most effective and important evidence-based treatment for schizophrenia, underutilization of clozapine remains considerable. To a substantial degree, this is attributable to a reluctance of psychiatrists to offer clozapine due to its relatively large side-effect burden and the complexity of its use. This underscores the necessity for continued education regarding both the vital nature and the intricacies of clozapine treatment. This narrative review summarizes all clinically relevant areas of evidence, which support clozapine's wide-ranging superior efficacy - for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) and beyond - and make its safe use eminently feasible. Converging evidence indicates that TRS constitutes a distinct albeit heterogeneous subgroup of schizophrenias primarily responsive to clozapine. Most importantly, the predominantly early onset of treatment resistance and the considerable decline in response rates associated with its delayed initiation make clozapine an essential treatment option throughout the course of illness, beginning with the first psychotic episode. To maximize patients' benefits, systematic early recognition efforts based on stringent use of TRS criteria, a timely offer of clozapine, thorough side-effect screening and management as well as consistent use of therapeutic drug monitoring and established augmentation strategies for suboptimal responders are crucial. To minimize permanent all-cause discontinuation, re-challenges after neutropenia or myocarditis should be considered. Owing to clozapine's unique efficacy, comorbid conditions including substance use and most somatic disorders should not dissuade but rather encourage clinicians to consider clozapine. Moreover, treatment decisions need to be informed by the late onset of clozapine's full effects, which for reduced suicidality and mortality rates may not even be readily apparent. Overall, the singular extent of its efficacy combined with the high level of patient satisfaction continues to distinguish clozapine from all other available antipsychotics.

The ever-growing case for clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia: an obligation for psychiatrists and psychiatry.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Clozapine remains the gold standard for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Although the evidence base for its wide-ranging, unique efficacy continues to expand, clozapine remains alarmingly underutilized in industrialized countries. Analyzing the causes and consequences of this problem is crucial for substantially improving the quality of care for TRS patients. RECENT FINDINGS: Clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic for reducing all-cause mortality in TRS. In most cases, treatment resistance emerges during the first psychotic episode. Delaying clozapine treatment has a negative impact on long-term outcome. Patients' experience with clozapine treatment is largely positive despite a comparatively high rate of side effects. Patients prefer clozapine, while psychiatrists regard it as a burden due to concerns regarding safety and side effect management. Shared decision-making (SDM), which increases the likelihood of a clozapine recommendation, is not routinely used, possibly due to stigmatization of TRS patients. SUMMARY: The mortality-reducing effects of clozapine alone warrant its regular use. Therefore, psychiatrists must not exclude patients from the decision regarding a clozapine trial by not even offering it. Rather, they have a clear obligation to align their actions more closely with the existing evidence and patients' needs and to facilitate the timely initiation of clozapine.

Phase-and disorder-specific differences in peripheral metabolites of the kynurenine pathway in major depression, bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: Kynurenine, kynurenic and quinolinic acid are important metabolites in tryptophan metabolism. Due to an involvement in glutamatergic neurotransmission and immune response, previous studies have investigated this pathway in mental disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD) or schizophrenia (SCZ). Tryptophan and kynurenine have been shown to be decreased across disorders, hinting at the missing link how inflammation causes neurotoxicity and psychiatric symptoms. The main aim of our study was to investigate if individual catabolites could serve as diagnostic biomarkers for MDD, BD and SCZ. METHODS: We measured plasma levels of tryptophan, kynurenine, kynurenic acid, quinolinic acid and ratio of quinolinic acid/kynurenic acid using mass spectrometry in n = 175 participants with acute episodes and after remission, compared with controls. RESULTS: Decreased levels of all tryptophan catabolites were found in the whole patient group, driven by the difference between BD and HC. Manic and mixed phase BD individuals displayed significantly lower kynurenine and kynurenic acid levels. We could not find significant differences between disorders. Upon reaching remission, changes in catabolite levels partially normalised. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests an involvement of the kynurenine pathway in mental disorders, especially BD but disqualifying those metabolites as biomarkers for differential diagnosis.

Improved correspondence of fMRI visual field localizer data after cortex-based macroanatomical alignment.

Studying the visual system with fMRI often requires using localizer paradigms to define regions of interest (ROIs). However, the considerable interindividual variability of the cerebral cortex represents a crucial confound for group-level analyses. Cortex-based alignment (CBA) techniques reliably reduce interindividual macroanatomical variability. Yet, their utility has not been assessed for visual field localizer paradigms, which map specific parts of the visual field within retinotopically organized visual areas. We evaluated CBA for an attention-enhanced visual field localizer, mapping homologous parts of each visual quadrant in 50 participants. We compared CBA with volume-based alignment and a surface-based analysis, which did not include macroanatomical alignment. CBA led to the strongest increase in the probability of activation overlap (up to 86%). At the group level, CBA led to the most consistent increase in ROI size while preserving vertical ROI symmetry. Overall, our results indicate that in addition to the increased signal-to-noise ratio of a surface-based analysis, macroanatomical alignment considerably improves statistical power. These findings confirm and extend the utility of CBA for the study of the visual system in the context of group analyses. CBA should be particularly relevant when studying neuropsychiatric disorders with abnormally increased interindividual macroanatomical variability.

Evidence From Imaging Resilience Genetics for a Protective Mechanism Against Schizophrenia in the Ventral Visual Pathway.

INTRODUCTION: Illuminating neurobiological mechanisms underlying the protective effect of recently discovered common genetic resilience variants for schizophrenia is crucial for more effective prevention efforts. Current models implicate adaptive neuroplastic changes in the visual system and their pro-cognitive effects as a schizophrenia resilience mechanism. We investigated whether common genetic resilience variants might affect brain structure in similar neural circuits. METHOD: Using structural magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the impact of an established schizophrenia polygenic resilience score (PRSResilience) on cortical volume, thickness, and surface area in 101 healthy subjects and in a replication sample of 33 224 healthy subjects (UK Biobank). FINDING: We observed a significant positive whole-brain correlation between PRSResilience and cortical volume in the right fusiform gyrus (FFG) (r = 0.35; P = .0004). Post-hoc analyses in this cluster revealed an impact of PRSResilience on cortical surface area. The replication sample showed a positive correlation between PRSResilience and global cortical volume and surface area in the left FFG. CONCLUSION: Our findings represent the first evidence of a neurobiological correlate of a genetic resilience factor for schizophrenia. They support the view that schizophrenia resilience emerges from strengthening neural circuits in the ventral visual pathway and an increased capacity for the disambiguation of social and nonsocial visual information. This may aid psychosocial functioning, ameliorate the detrimental effects of subtle perceptual and cognitive disturbances in at-risk individuals, and facilitate coping with the cognitive and psychosocial consequences of stressors. Our results thus provide a novel link between visual cognition, the vulnerability-stress concept, and schizophrenia resilience models.

Transdiagnostic comparison of visual working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Impaired working memory is a core cognitive deficit in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Its study might yield crucial insights into the underpinnings of both disorders on the cognitive and neurophysiological level. Visual working memory capacity is a particularly promising construct for such translational studies. However, it has not yet been investigated across the full spectrum of both disorders. The aim of our study was to compare the degree of reductions of visual working memory capacity in patients with bipolar disorder (PBD) and patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) using a paradigm well established in cognitive neuroscience. METHODS: 62 PBD, 64 PSZ, and 70 healthy controls (HC) completed a canonical visual change detection task. Participants had to encode the color of four circles and indicate after a short delay whether the color of one of the circles had changed or not. We estimated working memory capacity using Pashler's K. RESULTS: Working memory capacity was significantly reduced in both PBD and PSZ compared to HC. We observed a small effect size (r = .202) for the difference between HC and PBD and a medium effect size (r = .370) for the difference between HC and PSZ. Working memory capacity in PSZ was also significantly reduced compared to PBD with a small effect size (r = .201). Thus, PBD showed an intermediate level of impairment. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence for a gradient of reduced working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with PSZ showing the strongest degree of impairment. This underscores the importance of disturbed information processing for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Our results are compatible with the cognitive manifestation of a neurodevelopmental gradient affecting bipolar disorder to a lesser degree than schizophrenia. They also highlight the relevance of visual working memory capacity for the development of both behavior- and brain-based transdiagnostic biomarkers.

Cortical oscillatory activity is critical for working memory as revealed by deficits in early-onset schizophrenia.

Impairments in working memory (WM) are a core cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Neurophysiological models suggest that deficits during WM maintenance in schizophrenia may be explained by abnormalities in the GABAergic system, which will lead to deficits in high-frequency oscillations. However, it is not yet clear which of the three WM phases (encoding, maintenance, retrieval) are affected by dysfunctional oscillatory activity. We investigated the relationship between impairments in oscillatory activity in a broad frequency range (3-100 Hz) and WM load in the different phases of WM in 14 patients with early-onset schizophrenia and 14 matched control participants using a delayed matching to sample paradigm. During encoding, successful memorization was predicted by evoked theta, alpha, and beta oscillatory activity in controls. Patients showed severe reductions in the evoked activity in these frequency bands. During early WM maintenance, patients showed a comparable WM load-dependent increase in induced alpha and gamma activity to controls. In contrast, during the later maintenance phase, patients showed a shift in the peak of induced gamma activity to the lower WM load conditions. Finally, induced theta and gamma activity were reduced in patients during retrieval. Our findings suggest that the WM deficit in schizophrenia is associated with impaired oscillatory activity during all phases of the task and that the cortical storage system reaches its capacity limit at lower loads. Inability to maintain oscillatory activity in specific frequency bands could thus result in the information overload that may underlie both cognitive deficits and psychopathological symptoms of schizophrenia.

MicroRNA profiling of multiple sclerosis lesions identifies modulators of the regulatory protein CD47.

We established microRNA profiles from active and inactive multiple sclerosis lesions. Using laser capture microdissection from multiple sclerosis lesions to pool single cells and in vitro cultures, we assigned differentially expressed microRNA to specific cell types. Astrocytes contained all 10 microRNA that were most strongly upregulated in active multiple sclerosis lesions, including microRNA-155, which is known to modulate immune responses in different ways but so far had not been assigned to central nervous system resident cells. MicroRNA-155 was expressed in human astrocytes in situ, and further induced with cytokines in human astrocytes in vitro. This was confirmed with astrocyte cultures from microRNA-155-|-lacZ mice. We matched microRNA upregulated in phagocytically active multiple sclerosis lesions with downregulated protein coding transcripts. This converged on CD47, which functions as a 'don't eat me' signal inhibiting macrophage activity. Three microRNA upregulated in active multiple sclerosis lesions (microRNA-34a, microRNA-155 and microRNA-326) targeted the 3'-untranslated region of CD47 in reporter assays, with microRNA-155 even at two distinct sites. Our findings suggest that microRNA dysregulated in multiple sclerosis lesions reduce CD47 in brain resident cells, releasing macrophages from inhibitory control, thereby promoting phagocytosis of myelin. This mechanism may have broad implications for microRNA-regulated macrophage activation in inflammatory diseases.

Associative Memory Impairments Are Associated With Functional Alterations Within the Memory Network in Schizophrenia Patients and Their Unaffected First-Degree Relatives: An fMRI Study.

Memory impairments are a major characteristic of schizophrenia (SZ). In the current study, we used an associative memory task to test the hypothesis that SZ patients and first-degree relatives have altered functional patterns in comparison to healthy controls. We analyzed the fMRI activation pattern during the presentation of a face-name task in 27 SZ patients, 23 first-degree relatives, and 27 healthy controls. In addition, we performed correlation analyses between individual psychopathology, accuracy and reaction time of the task and the beta scores of the functional brain activations. We observed a lower response accuracy and increased reaction time during the retrieval of face-name pairs in SZ patients compared with controls. Deficient performance was accompanied by abnormal functional activation patterns predominantly in DMN regions during encoding and retrieval. No significant correlation between individual psychopathology and neuronal activation during encoding or retrieval of face-name pairs was observed. Findings of first-degree relatives indicated slightly different functional pattern within brain networks in contrast to controls without significant differences in the behavioral task. Both the accuracy of memory performance as well as the functional activation pattern during retrieval revealed alterations in SZ patients, and, to a lesser degree, in relatives. The results are of potential relevance for integration within a comprehensive model of memory function in SZ. The development of a neurophysiological model of cognition in psychosis may help to clarify and improve therapeutic options to improve memory and functioning in the illness.