The Neurobiology of Stimulus Encoding in Schizophrenia

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION: The proposed renewal of our Conte Center builds on a foundation of joint discovery and infrastructure[unreadable] directed at understanding neural substrates of schizophrenia. Our progress arises from applying diverse[unreadable] basic and clinical neuroscience perspectives that have probed anatomic, physiologic, neuropathologic, and[unreadable] genetic integrity of information processing in patients and animal models.[unreadable] The clinical projects have characterized the nature and extent of sensory processing deficits in[unreadable] schizophrenia, while the animal model projects have illuminated basic mechanisms of stimulus processing.[unreadable] Within the stimulus processing cascade that we examined, the clinical studies revealed that patients had[unreadable] robust abnormalities in perceptual encoding and detection of deviance. Furthermore, our postmortem studies[unreadable] discovered abnormalities in the expression and function of candidate genes that are mechanistically linked to[unreadable] glutamatergic neurotransmission in critical neural circuitry for signal detection and encoding.[unreadable] These data leads us to focus efforts onto investigating the neurobiological mechanisms of deviance[unreadable] detection in schizophrenia as the central theme for the proposed renewal application. This central hypothesis[unreadable] will be examined with converging methodologies in humans and rodents.[unreadable] The Center will be organized into seven Projects: 0001. Electrophysiology; 0002. fMRI; 0007. Molecular; 0003. Signaling;[unreadable] 0008. Animal Electrophysiology; 0009. Cellular; 0010.Computation. Two Cores will support the Projects:[unreadable] Core A Coordination and Core B Data and Biostatistics.[unreadable] The proposed CCNMD capitalizes on the collaborative expertise of investigators and resources at the[unreadable] University of Pennsylvania for conducting this challenging interdisciplinary translational research. In addition[unreadable] to advancing its scientific agenda, the Center will be an educational resource for faculty, fellows, residents,[unreadable] graduate and undergraduate students. It will also be a clinical and educational resource for the community[unreadable] including individuals with schizophrenia, their families and care providers.