Schizophrenia causes profound withdrawal from family and friends, decreases in intellectual ability, hallucinations and delusions. Our view is that a derailment of the normal maturational program that occurs during the second decade of life in humans underlies schizophrenia.
However, very little is known about the normal cellular and molecular developmental changes that occur in the human brain at this important time and how these changes may influence cognitive processes and the development of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a debilitating disease characterized by psychosis and cognitive impairment due to both general and regionally specific brain dysfunction and having a genetic contribution. The cause or causes of schizophrenia is presently unknown.
The Cognitive Neuronal Systems Unit of the Schizophrenia Research Laboratory uses functional brain imaging (fMRI), cognitive testing, and genetic analyses to determine the relationship among cognitive impairment, genetic influences, and brain dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. In the future, we will also use functional genetic polymorphisms to guide our research using brain stimulation techniques (repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) and the novel application of existing medications as adjunctive therapies to antipsychotic treatment in order to reverse cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia and restore normal functional abilities.
Cognitive (thought related) problems in patients with schizophrenia can be variable. The cognitive abilities of minorities of patients may be either severely disabling or conversely, apparently normal; however, the majority of patients with schizophrenia show cognitive impairment in relation to planning, problem solving, memory, and attention. Even in those patients with schizophrenia who display apparently normal cognitive abilities, some cognitive impairment is apparent when compared to appropriate control groups.
Cognitive impairment related to planning and problem solving (so called “executive function”) appears to be common to all patients with schizophrenia. Treatment with antipsychotic medication may help to reduce psychotic symptoms and improve general cognitive function to some degree but these medications do not completely restore patients to their previous level of function before illness onset. There appears to be a relationship between antipsychotic treatment and certain genes that control the levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain of patients with schizophrenia.
Patients with a certain form of a specific gene respond better to antipsychotic treatment by showing greater improvement in their cognitive abilities during antipsychotic treatment relative to patients who have a different form of the same gene. Knowing which patients respond better to different treatments could help us to find better medications to improve cognitive abilities in patients with schizophrenia which may allow patients to return to society and live a better life.
The Weickert Group’s projects