Vaibhav A. Diwadkar1,2, Neil Bakshi1,
Patrick Pruitt1, Ashu Kaushal3, Eric R. Murphy4,
Matcheri S. Keshavan5, Usha Rajan3, Caroline
Zajac-Benitez3
1Psychiatry & Behavioral
Neuroscience, Wayne State University SOM, Detroit, MI, United States; 2Psychiatry,
University of Pittsburgh SOM, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 3Psychiatry,
Wayne State University SOM, Detroit, MI, United States; 4Psychology,
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States; 5Psychiatry,
Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
We
used fMRI and dynamic causal modeling to study altered functional
organization of sustained attention networks in adolescent offspring of
schizophrenia patients. This group is
at increased risk for psychiatric disorders, demonstrating impairments in
cognitive function, making it an important one in whom to study developmental
vulnerabilities. Modeling focused on
interactions between control systems such as the anterior cingulate cortex,
and frontal, parietal and striatal regions.
Offspring evinced reduced cingulate-striatal coupling, but increased
cingulate-prefrontal coupling. Reduced
cortico-striatal coupling, along with increased cortico-cortical coupling may
reflect the impact of abnormal development on the role of control processes
in the adolescent brain.