Cognitive Neuroscience | Neurobiology of Disease & Regeneration | Schizophrenia & Other Psychoses
Stop-signal response inhibition deficits in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected siblings
Matthijs Vink*, Bram B Zandbelt, Mariët van Buuren, René S Kahn
*Corresponding author: Matthijs Vink
Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
F1000 Posters 2010, 1: 691 (poster) [ENGLISH]
Poster [3.13 MB] | Evaluation
Presented at
Neuroscience 2010,
13 - 17 Nov 2010, 601.3
Here we test how inhibitory control is impaired in schizophrenia patients, and if similar impairments are present in non-affected siblings of patients. Participants performed a stop-signal response inhibition task in which the likelihood of a stop-signal were indicated by means of a cue. We investigated inhibitory control triggered by the stop-signal (reactive inhibitory control) or by cues predicting a stop-signal (proactive inhibitory control).
We hypothesize that schizophrenia is specifically associated with poor proactive control, because it relies more heavily on context-processing, working memory capacity, and mesocortical dopaminergic projections, all of which are compromised in schizophrenia.
We found that compared to matched healthy controls, patients and siblings show normal reactive, but diminished proactive inhibitory control. This was paralleled by normal brain activation during reactive inhibition, but impaired fronto-parietal and striatal activation in anticipation of such inhibition. Moreover, subjects with the smallest working memory capacity also showed the least amount of proactive (but not reactive) inhibition.
Schizophrenia patients show impaired proactive inhibitory control, associated with a failure to activate the striatum and fronto-parietal areas, as well as reduced working memory capacity.
No relevant conflicts of interest declared.
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