NEUROIMAGING OF HIPPOCAMPAL FUNCTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA

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Abstract

This is a request for an NIMH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K-23) entitled "Neuroimaging of Hippocampal Function in Schizophrenia". The candidate's interest is the study of hippocampal function in the human brain with a special emphasis on schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence have implicated abnormalities of the hippocampus in schizophrenia. The candidate proposes to test the hypothesis of memory associated hippocampal deficits in schizophrenia with functional neuroimaging experiments. The candidate's previous training was in neuroanatomy and clinical psychiatry, and includes initial training in positron emission tomography (PET) technology. The proposed project will provide more advanced training in PET as well as training in (1) the application of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), (2) the cognitive neuroscience of memory, (3) the statistical aspects of comparing psychiatric patients and control subjects, and (4) the neurobiology of schizophrenia. The research project designed to achieve these goals integrates four experimental approaches to study hippocampal function in schizophrenia. First, established PET activation paradigms will be used to assess hippocampal function during memory retrieval in schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Second, fMRI will be used to study hippocampal activating during memory processes in schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Third, the pattern of hippocampal activation will be correlated with the structural organization of the brain using morphometric analyses. Fourth, psychological experiments will be developed to study memory and conscious recollection in schizophrenia. This integrated program, providing training in neuroimaging technologies, cognitive neuroscience, and statistical analyses, will foster the candidate's development into an independent investigator in the fields of schizophrenia research and neuropsychiatry. The research conducted will advance our understanding of hippocampal function in the human brain and elucidate the neuropsychology and neurobiology of schizophrenia.