Episodic memory and neuroimaging of hippocampus and fornix in chronic schizophrenia

Nestor, Paul G.; Kubicki, Marek; Kuroki, Noriomi; Gurrera, Ronald J.; Niznikiewicz, Margaret; Shenton, Martha E.; McCarley, Robert W.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.12.020

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 155, Issue 1 , Pages 21-28, 15 May 2007

Episodic memory and neuroimaging of hippocampus and fornix in chronic schizophrenia

Paul G. Nestor
- Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, United States
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Boston VA Health Care System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, MA 02125-3393, United States.
Marek Kubicki
- Surgical Planning Laboratory, MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Noriomi Kuroki
- Surgical Planning Laboratory, MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Ronald J. Gurrera
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Boston VA Health Care System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Margaret Niznikiewicz
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Boston VA Health Care System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Surgical Planning Laboratory, MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Martha E. Shenton
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Boston VA Health Care System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Surgical Planning Laboratory, MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Robert W. McCarley
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Boston VA Health Care System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Surgical Planning Laboratory, MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

Received 16 December 2006; accepted 27 December 2006.

Abstract

A group of 44 patients with schizophrenia and 43 age-matched controls completed psychometrically-matched tasks of recall and recognition. The patients showed similarly depressed scores across both recall and recognition matched tasks, independent of their reduced IQ and executive functioning scores. In addition, reduced memory scores correlated in the expected direction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the hippocampus and diffusion tension imaging (DTI) of the fornix for subsets of both patients and controls that had available these structural imaging measures. Reduced executive functioning also correlated with lower fornix integrity for the patient subset. However, increased hippocampal volume correlated, in the negative direction, with lower scores for executive functioning and IQ in the control subset. Implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords: Hippocampus, Fornix, Recall, Recognition