Beng-Choon Ho

The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, NM, USA

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Publications (45)319.25 Total impact

  • Article: Relapse Duration, Treatment Intensity, and Brain Tissue Loss in Schizophrenia: A Prospective Longitudinal MRI Study.
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    ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE Longitudinal structural MRI studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia have progressive brain tissue loss after onset. Recurrent relapses are believed to play a role in this loss, but the relationship between relapse and structural MRI measures has not been rigorously assessed. The authors analyzed longitudinal data to examine this question. METHODS The authors studied data from 202 patients drawn from the Iowa Longitudinal Study of first-episode schizophrenia for whom adequate structural MRI data were available (N=659 scans) from scans obtained at regular intervals over an average of 7 years. Because clinical follow-up data were obtained at 6-month intervals, the authors were able to compute measures of relapse number and duration and relate them to structural MRI measures. Because higher treatment intensity has been associated with smaller brain tissue volumes, the authors also examined this countereffect in terms of dose-years. RESULTS Relapse duration was related to significant decreases in both general (e.g., total cerebral volume) and regional (e.g., frontal) brain measures. Number of relapses was unrelated to brain measures. Significant effects were also observed for treatment intensity. CONCLUSIONS Extended periods of relapse may have a negative effect on brain integrity in schizophrenia, suggesting the importance of implementing proactive measures that may prevent relapse and improve treatment adherence. By examining the relative balance of effects, that is, relapse duration versus antipsychotic treatment intensity, this study sheds light on a troublesome dilemma that clinicians face. Relapse prevention is important, but it should be sustained using the lowest possible medication dosages that will control symptoms.
    American Journal of Psychiatry 04/2013; · 12.54 Impact Factor
  • Article: The Impact of Copy Number Deletions on General Cognitive Ability and Ventricle Size in Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Control Subjects.
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    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: General cognitive ability is usually lower in individuals with schizophrenia, partly due to genetic influences. However, the specific genetic features related to general cognitive ability are poorly understood. Individual variation in a specific type of mutation, uncommon genetic deletions, has recently been linked with both general cognitive ability and risk for schizophrenia. METHODS: We derived measures of the aggregate number of "uncommon" deletions (i.e., those occurring in 3% or less of our combined samples) and the total number of base pairs affected by these deletions in individuals with schizophrenia (n = 79) and healthy control subjects (n = 110) and related each measure to the first principal component of a large battery of cognitive tests, a common technique for characterizing general cognitive ability. These two measures of mutation load were also evaluated for relationships with total brain gray matter, white matter, and lateral ventricle volume. RESULTS: The groups did not differ on genetic variables. Multivariate general linear models revealed a group (control subjects vs. patients)×uncommon deletion number interaction, such that the latter variable was associated with lower general cognitive ability and larger ventricles in patients but not control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that aggregate uncommon deletion burden moderates central features of the schizophrenia phenotype.
    Biological psychiatry 12/2012; · 8.93 Impact Factor
  • Article: Spatial Characteristics of White Matter Abnormalities in Schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: There is considerable evidence implicating brain white matter (WM) abnormalities in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia; however, the spatial localization of WM abnormalities reported in the existing studies is heterogeneous. Thus, the goal of this study was to quantify the spatial characteristics of WM abnormalities in schizophrenia. One hundred and fourteen patients with schizophrenia and 138 matched controls participated in this multisite study involving the Universities of Iowa, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. We measured fractional anisotropy (FA) in brain WM regions extracted using 3 different image-processing algorithms: regions of interest, tract-based spatial statistics, and the pothole approach. We found that FA was significantly lower in patients using each of the 3 image-processing algorithms. The region-of-interest approach showed multiple regions with lower FA in patients with schizophrenia, with overlap at all 4 sites in the corpus callosum and posterior thalamic radiation. The tract-based spatial statistic approach showed (1) global differences in 3 of the 4 cohorts and (2) lower frontal FA at the Iowa site. Finally, the pothole approach showed a significantly greater number of WM potholes in patients compared to controls at each of the 4 sites. In conclusion, the spatial characteristics of WM abnormalities in schizophrenia reflect a combination of a global low-level decrease in FA, suggesting a diffuse process, coupled with widely dispersed focal reductions in FA that vary spatially among individuals (ie, potholes).
    Schizophrenia Bulletin 09/2012; · 8.80 Impact Factor
  • Article: Influence of ZNF804a on Brain Structure Volumes and Symptom Severity in Individuals With Schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: CONTEXT The single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1344706 in the gene ZNF804a has been associated with schizophrenia and with quantitative phenotypic features, including brain structure volume and the core symptoms of schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE To evaluate associations of rs1344706 with brain structure and the core symptoms of schizophrenia. DESIGN Case-control analysis of covariance. SETTING University-based research hospital. PARTICIPANTS Volunteer sample of 335 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (306 with core schizophrenia) and 198 healthy volunteers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Cerebral cortical gray matter and white matter (WM) volumes (total and frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes), lateral ventricular cerebrospinal fluid volume, and symptom severity from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms divided into 3 domains: psychotic, negative, and disorganized. RESULTS The rs1344706 genotype produced significant main effects on total, frontal, and parietal lobe WM volumes (F = 3.98, P = .02; F = 4.95, P = .007; and F = 3.08, P = .05, respectively). In the schizophrenia group, rs1344706 produced significant simple effects on total (F = 3.93, P = .02) and frontal WM volumes (F = 7.16, P < .001) and on psychotic symptom severity (F = 6.07, P = .003); the pattern of effects was concordant with risk allele carriers having larger volumes and more severe symptoms of disease than nonrisk homozygotes. In the healthy volunteer group, risk allele homozygotes had increased total WM volume compared with nonrisk allele carriers (F = 4.61, P = .03), replicating a previously reported association. CONCLUSIONS A growing body of evidence suggests that the risk allele of rs1347706 is associated with a distinctive set of phenotypic features in healthy volunteers and individuals with schizophrenia. Our study supports this assertion by finding that specific genotypes of the polymorphism are associated with brain structure volumes in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers and with symptom severity in schizophrenia.
    Archives of general psychiatry 09/2012; 69(9):885-92. · 12.26 Impact Factor
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    Article: Heritability of multivariate gray matter measures in schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Structural brain measures are employed as endophenotypes in the search for schizophrenia susceptibility genes. We analyzed two independent structural imaging datasets with voxel-based morphometry and with source-based morphometry, a multivariate, independent components analysis, to determine the stability and heritability of regional gray matter concentration abnormalities in schizophrenia. The samples comprised 209 and 102 patients with schizophrenia and 208 and 96 healthy volunteers, respectively. The second sample additionally included non-ill siblings of participants with and without schizophrenia. A standard voxel-based analysis showed reproducible regional gray matter deficits in the affected participants compared with unrelated, unaffected controls in both datasets: patients showed significant gray matter concentration deficits in cortical frontal, temporal, and insular lobes. Source-based morphometry (SBM) was applied to the gray matter images of the entire sample to determine the effects of diagnosis on networks of covarying structures. The SBM analysis extracted 24 significant sets of covarying regions (components). Four of these components showed significantly lower gray matter concentrations in patients (p < .05). We determined the familiality of the observed SBM components based on 66 sibling pairs (25 discordant for schizophrenia). Two components, one including the medial frontal, insular, inferior frontal, and temporal lobes, and the other including the posterior occipital lobe, showed significant familiality (p < .05). We conclude that structural brain deficits in schizophrenia are replicable, and that SBM can extract unique familial and likely heritable components. SBM provides a useful data reduction technique that can provide measures that may serve as endophenotypes for schizophrenia.
    Twin Research and Human Genetics 06/2012; 15(3):324-35. · 1.70 Impact Factor
  • Article: Multifaceted genomic risk for brain function in schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Recently, deriving candidate endophenotypes from brain imaging data has become a valuable approach to study genetic influences on schizophrenia (SZ), whose pathophysiology remains unclear. In this work we utilized a multivariate approach, parallel independent component analysis, to identify genomic risk components associated with brain function abnormalities in SZ. 5157 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were derived from genome-wide array based on their possible connections with SZ and further investigated for their associations with brain activations captured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a sensorimotor task. Using data from 92 SZ patients and 116 healthy controls, we detected a significant correlation (r=0.29; p=2.41 × 10(-5)) between one fMRI component and one SNP component, both of which significantly differentiated patients from controls. The fMRI component mainly consisted of precentral and postcentral gyri, the major activated regions in the motor task. On average, higher activation in these regions was observed in participants with higher loadings of the linked SNP component, predominantly contributed to by 253 SNPs. 138 identified SNPs were from known coding regions of 100 unique genes. 31 identified SNPs did not differ between groups, but moderately correlated with some other group-discriminating SNPs, indicating interactions among alleles contributing toward elevated SZ susceptibility. The genes associated with the identified SNPs participated in four neurotransmitter pathways: GABA receptor signaling, dopamine receptor signaling, neuregulin signaling and glutamate receptor signaling. In summary, our work provides further evidence for the complexity of genomic risk to the functional brain abnormality in SZ and suggests a pathological role of interactions between SNPs, genes and multiple neurotransmitter pathways.
    NeuroImage 03/2012; 61(4):866-75. · 5.89 Impact Factor
  • Article: Cumulative Genetic Risk and Prefrontal Activity in Patients With Schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: The lack of consistency of genetic associations in highly heritable mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, remains a challenge in molecular psychiatry. Because clinical phenotypes for psychiatric disorders are often ill defined, considerable effort has been made to relate genetic polymorphisms to underlying physiological aspects of schizophrenia (so called intermediate phenotypes), that may be more reliable. Given the polygenic etiology of schizophrenia, the aim of this work was to form a measure of cumulative genetic risk and study its effect on neural activity during working memory (WM) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neural activity during the Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm was measured in 79 schizophrenia patients and 99 healthy controls. Participants were genotyped, and a genetic risk score (GRS), which combined the additive effects of 41 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 34 risk genes for schizophrenia, was calculated. These risk SNPs were chosen according to the continuously updated meta-analysis of genetic studies on schizophrenia available at www.schizophreniaresearchforum.org. We found a positive relationship between GRS and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex inefficiency during WM processing. GRS was not correlated with age, performance, intelligence, or medication effects and did not differ between acquisition sites, gender, or diagnostic groups. Our study suggests that cumulative genetic risk, combining the impact of many genes with small effects, is associated with a known brain-based intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia. The GRS approach could provide an advantage over studying single genes in studies focusing on the genetic basis of polygenic conditions such as neuropsychiatric disorders.
    Schizophrenia Bulletin 01/2012; · 8.80 Impact Factor
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    Article: Altered small-world brain networks in schizophrenia patients during working memory performance.
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    ABSTRACT: Impairment of working memory (WM) performance in schizophrenia patients (SZ) is well-established. Compared to healthy controls (HC), SZ patients show aberrant blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activations and disrupted functional connectivity during WM performance. In this study, we examined the small-world network metrics computed from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected as 35 HC and 35 SZ performed a Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm (SIRP) at three WM load levels. Functional connectivity networks were built by calculating the partial correlation on preprocessed time courses of BOLD signal between task-related brain regions of interest (ROIs) defined by group independent component analysis (ICA). The networks were then thresholded within the small-world regime, resulting in undirected binarized small-world networks at different working memory loads. Our results showed: 1) at the medium WM load level, the networks in SZ showed a lower clustering coefficient and less local efficiency compared with HC; 2) in SZ, most network measures altered significantly as the WM load level increased from low to medium and from medium to high, while the network metrics were relatively stable in HC at different WM loads; and 3) the altered structure at medium WM load in SZ was related to their performance during the task, with longer reaction time related to lower clustering coefficient and lower local efficiency. These findings suggest brain connectivity in patients with SZ was more diffuse and less strongly linked locally in functional network at intermediate level of WM when compared to HC. SZ show distinctly inefficient and variable network structures in response to WM load increase, comparing to stable highly clustered network topologies in HC.
    PLoS ONE 01/2012; 7(6):e38195. · 4.09 Impact Factor
  • Article: Progressive brain change in schizophrenia: a prospective longitudinal study of first-episode schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia has a characteristic onset during adolescence or young adulthood but also tends to persist throughout life. Structural magnetic resonance studies indicate that brain abnormalities are present at onset, but longitudinal studies to assess neuroprogression have been limited by small samples and short or infrequent follow-up intervals. The Iowa Longitudinal Study is a prospective study of 542 first-episode patients who have been followed up to 18 years. In this report, we focus on those patients (n = 202) and control subjects (n = 125) for whom we have adequate structural magnetic resonance data (n = 952 scans) to provide a relatively definitive determination of whether progressive brain change occurs over a time interval of up to 15 years after intake. A repeated-measures analysis showed significant age-by-group interaction main effects that represent a significant decrease in multiple gray matter regions (total cerebral, frontal, thalamus), multiple white matter regions (total cerebral, frontal, temporal, parietal), and a corresponding increase in cerebrospinal fluid (lateral ventricles and frontal, temporal, and parietal sulci). These changes were most severe during the early years after onset. They occur at severe levels only in a subset of patients. They are correlated with cognitive impairment but only weakly with other clinical measures. Progressive brain change occurs in schizophrenia, affects both gray matter and white matter, is most severe during the early stages of the illness, and occurs only in a subset of patients. Measuring severity of progressive brain change offers a promising new avenue for phenotype definition in genetic studies of schizophrenia.
    Biological psychiatry 07/2011; 70(7):672-9. · 8.93 Impact Factor
  • Article: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of limbic structures displays metabolite differences in young unaffected relatives of schizophrenia probands.
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    ABSTRACT: Imaging studies of schizophrenia patients showed fronto-temporal brain volume deficits, while magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies of patients and unaffected biological relatives have found a decrement of the neuronal marker N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) in the hippocampus and frontal lobes, and increased choline-containing phospholipids. Using a 3T MR scanner, we determined the metabolite profile within limbic regions (anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and left hippocampus) of 36 unaffected, adolescent/young adult relatives of schizophrenia probands (first-degree=16, second-degree=20) and 25 healthy controls with no family history of schizophrenia. Significant main effects of group were found on NAA/Cho ratios for both the left hippocampus (F = 6.11, p ≤ 0.02) and ACC (F = 4.89, p ≤ 0.03) as well as for the left hippocampus Cho/Cr ratio (F = 5.55, p ≤ 0.02). Compared to age and sex matched healthy controls without a family history of schizophrenia, first-degree relatives of probands had greater MRS metabolite deviations than second-degree relatives. Greater familial proximity to the schizophrenia proband (or higher schizophrenia susceptibility) among biological relatives was associated with stepwise lowering of NAA/Cho and elevations in Cho/Cr ratios. The observed limbic metabolite changes among young, nonpsychotic biological relatives are likely related to shared genetic vulnerability factors, and may assist in the early identification of schizophrenia for primary and secondary prevention.
    Biological Psychiatry 06/2011; 131(1-3):4-10. · 8.28 Impact Factor
  • Article: DISC1 is associated with cortical thickness and neural efficiency.
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    ABSTRACT: Disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is known to play a major role during brain development and is a candidate gene for schizophrenia. Cortical thickness is highly heritable and several MRI studies have shown widespread reductions of cortical thickness in patients with schizophrenia. Here, we investigated the effects of variation in DISC1 on cortical thickness. In a subsequent analysis we tested whether the identified DISC1 risk variant is also associated with neural activity during working memory functioning. We acquired structural MRI (sMRI), functional MRI (fMRI) and genotype data from 96 healthy volunteers. Separate cortical statistical maps for five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of DISC1 were generated to detect differences of cortical thickness in genotype groups across the entire cortical surface. Working-memory related load-dependent activation was measured during the Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm and analyzed using a region-of-interest approach. Phe allele carriers of the DISC1 SNP Leu607Phe had significantly reduced cortical thickness in the left supramarginal gyrus compared to Leu/Leu homozygotes. Neural activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during working memory task was increased in Phe allele carriers, whereas working memory performance did not differ between genotype groups. This study provides convergent evidence for the effect of DISC1 risk variants on two independent brain-based intermediate phenotypes of schizophrenia. The same risk variant was associated with cortical thickness reductions and signs of neural inefficiency during a working memory task. Our findings provide further evidence for a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.
    NeuroImage 05/2011; 57(4):1591-600. · 5.89 Impact Factor
  • Article: Cannabinoid receptor 1 gene polymorphisms and marijuana misuse interactions on white matter and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Marijuana exposure during the critical period of adolescent brain maturation may disrupt neuro-modulatory influences of endocannabinoids and increase schizophrenia susceptibility. Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1/CNR1) is the principal brain receptor mediating marijuana effects. No study to-date has systematically investigated the impact of CNR1 on quantitative phenotypic features in schizophrenia and inter-relationships with marijuana misuse. We genotyped 235 schizophrenia patients using 12 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) that account for most of CB1 coding region genetic variability. Patients underwent a high-resolution anatomic brain magnetic resonance scan and cognitive assessment. Almost a quarter of the sample met DSM marijuana abuse (14%) or dependence (8%) criteria. Effects of CNR1 tSNPs and marijuana abuse/dependence on brain volumes and neurocognition were assessed using ANCOVA, including co-morbid alcohol/non-marijuana illicit drug misuse as covariates. Significant main effects of CNR1 tSNPs (rs7766029, rs12720071, and rs9450898) were found in white matter (WM) volumes. Patients with marijuana abuse/dependence had smaller fronto-temporal WM volumes than patients without heavy marijuana use. More interestingly, there were significant rs12720071 genotype-by-marijuana use interaction effects on WM volumes and neurocognitive impairment; suggestive of gene-environment interactions for conferring phenotypic abnormalities in schizophrenia. In this comprehensive evaluation of genetic variants distributed across the CB1 locus, CNR1 genetic polymorphisms were associated with WM brain volume variation among schizophrenia patients. Our findings suggest that heavy cannabis use in the context of specific CNR1 genotypes may contribute to greater WM volume deficits and cognitive impairment, which could in turn increase schizophrenia risk.
    Biological Psychiatry 03/2011; 128(1-3):66-75. · 8.28 Impact Factor
  • Article: Associations of cortical thickness and cognition in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
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    ABSTRACT: Previous studies have found varying relationships between cognitive functioning and brain volumes in patients with schizophrenia. However, cortical thickness may more closely reflect cytoarchitectural characteristics than gray matter density or volume estimates. Here, we aimed to compare associations between regional variation in cortical thickness and executive functions, memory, as well as verbal and spatial processing in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls (HCs). We obtained magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological data for 131 patients and 138 matched controls. Automated cortical pattern matching methods allowed testing for associations with cortical thickness estimated as the shortest distance between the gray/white matter border and the pial surface at thousands of points across the entire cortical surface. Two independent measures of working memory showed robust associations with cortical thickness in lateral prefrontal cortex in HCs, whereas patients exhibited associations between working memory and cortical thickness in the right middle and superior temporal lobe. This study provides additional evidence for a disrupted structure-function relationship in schizophrenia. In line with the prefrontal inefficiency hypothesis, schizophrenia patients may engage a larger compensatory network of brain regions other than frontal cortex to recall and manipulate verbal material in working memory.
    Schizophrenia Bulletin 03/2011; 38(5):1050-62. · 8.80 Impact Factor
  • Article: Long-term antipsychotic treatment and brain volumes: a longitudinal study of first-episode schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Progressive brain volume changes in schizophrenia are thought to be due principally to the disease. However, recent animal studies indicate that antipsychotics, the mainstay of treatment for schizophrenia patients, may also contribute to brain tissue volume decrement. Because antipsychotics are prescribed for long periods for schizophrenia patients and have increasingly widespread use in other psychiatric disorders, it is imperative to determine their long-term effects on the human brain. To evaluate relative contributions of 4 potential predictors (illness duration, antipsychotic treatment, illness severity, and substance abuse) of brain volume change. Predictors of brain volume changes were assessed prospectively based on multiple informants. Data from the Iowa Longitudinal Study. Two hundred eleven patients with schizophrenia who underwent repeated neuroimaging beginning soon after illness onset, yielding a total of 674 high-resolution magnetic resonance scans. On average, each patient had 3 scans (≥2 and as many as 5) over 7.2 years (up to 14 years). Brain volumes. During longitudinal follow-up, antipsychotic treatment reflected national prescribing practices in 1991 through 2009. Longer follow-up correlated with smaller brain tissue volumes and larger cerebrospinal fluid volumes. Greater intensity of antipsychotic treatment was associated with indicators of generalized and specific brain tissue reduction after controlling for effects of the other 3 predictors. More antipsychotic treatment was associated with smaller gray matter volumes. Progressive decrement in white matter volume was most evident among patients who received more antipsychotic treatment. Illness severity had relatively modest correlations with tissue volume reduction, and alcohol/illicit drug misuse had no significant associations when effects of the other variables were adjusted. Viewed together with data from animal studies, our study suggests that antipsychotics have a subtle but measurable influence on brain tissue loss over time, suggesting the importance of careful risk-benefit review of dosage and duration of treatment as well as their off-label use.
    Archives of general psychiatry 02/2011; 68(2):128-37. · 12.26 Impact Factor
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    Article: A Data-Driven Investigation of Gray Matter-Function Correlations in Schizophrenia during a Working Memory Task.
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    ABSTRACT: The brain is a vastly interconnected organ and methods are needed to investigate its long range structure(S)-function(F) associations to better understand disorders such as schizophrenia that are hypothesized to be due to distributed disconnected brain regions. In previous work we introduced a methodology to reduce the whole brain S-F correlations to a histogram and here we reduce the correlations to brain clusters. The application of our approach to sMRI [gray matter (GM) concentration maps] and functional magnetic resonance imaging data (general linear model activation maps during Encode and Probe epochs of a working memory task) from patients with schizophrenia (SZ, n = 100) and healthy controls (HC, n = 100) presented the following results. In HC the whole brain correlation histograms for GM-Encode and GM-Probe overlap for Low and Medium loads and at High the histograms separate, but in SZ the histograms do not overlap for any of the load levels and Medium load shows the maximum difference. We computed GM-F differential correlation clusters using activation for Probe Medium, and they included regions in the left and right superior temporal gyri, anterior cingulate, cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and the cerebellum. Inter-cluster GM-Probe correlations for Medium load were positive in HC but negative in SZ. Within group inter-cluster GM-Encode and GM-Probe correlation comparisons show no differences in HC but in SZ differences are evident in the same clusters where HC vs. SZ differences occurred for Probe Medium, indicating that the S-F integrity during Probe is aberrant in SZ. Through a data-driven whole brain analysis approach we find novel brain clusters and show how the S-F differential correlation changes during Probe and Encode at three memory load levels. Structural and functional anomalies have been extensively reported in schizophrenia and here we provide evidences to suggest that evaluating S-F associations can provide important additional information.
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 01/2011; 5:71. · 2.34 Impact Factor
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    Article: Neuropsychological testing and structural magnetic resonance imaging as diagnostic biomarkers early in the course of schizophrenia and related psychoses.
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    ABSTRACT: Making an accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia and related psychoses early in the course of the disease is important for initiating treatment and counseling patients and families. In this study, we developed classification models for early disease diagnosis using structural MRI (sMRI) and neuropsychological (NP) testing. We used sMRI measurements and NP test results from 28 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia and 47 healthy subjects, drawn from the larger sample of the Mind Clinical Imaging Consortium. We developed diagnostic models based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) following two approaches; namely, (a) stepwise (STP) LDA on the original measurements, and (b) LDA on variables created through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and selected using the Humphrey-Ilgen parallel analysis. Error estimation of the modeling algorithms was evaluated by leave-one-out external cross-validation. These analyses were performed on sMRI and NP variables separately and in combination. The following classification accuracy was obtained for different variables and modeling algorithms. sMRI only: (a) STP-LDA: 64.3% sensitivity and 76.6% specificity, (b) PCA-LDA: 67.9% sensitivity and 72.3% specificity. NP only: (a) STP-LDA: 71.4% sensitivity and 80.9% specificity, (b) PCA-LDA: 78.5% sensitivity and 91.5% specificity. Combined sMRI-NP: (a) STP-LDA: 64.3% sensitivity and 83.0% specificity, (b) PCA-LDA: 89.3% sensitivity and 93.6% specificity. (i) Maximal diagnostic accuracy was achieved by combining sMRI and NP variables. (ii) NP variables were more informative than sMRI, indicating that cognitive deficits can be detected earlier than volumetric structural abnormalities. (iii) PCA-LDA yielded more accurate classification than STP-LDA. As these sMRI and NP tests are widely available, they can increase accuracy of early intervention strategies and possibly be used in evaluating treatment response.
    Neuroinformatics 01/2011; 9(4):321-33. · 2.97 Impact Factor
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    Article: Identification of imaging biomarkers in schizophrenia: a coefficient-constrained independent component analysis of the mind multi-site schizophrenia study.
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    ABSTRACT: A number of recent studies have combined multiple experimental paradigms and modalities to find relevant biological markers for schizophrenia. In this study, we extracted fMRI features maps from the analysis of three experimental paradigms (auditory oddball, Sternberg item recognition, sensorimotor) for a large number (n=154) of patients with schizophrenia and matched healthy controls. We used the general linear model (GLM) and independent component analysis (ICA) to extract feature maps (i.e. ICA component maps and GLM contrast maps), which were then subjected to a coefficient-constrained independent component analysis (CCICA) to identify potential neurobiological markers. A total of 29 different feature maps were extracted for each subject. Our results show a number of optimal feature combinations that reflect a set of brain regions that significantly discriminate between patients and controls in the spatial heterogeneity and amplitude of their feature signals. Spatial heterogeneity was seen in regions such as the superior/middle temporal and frontal gyri, bilateral parietal lobules, and regions of the thalamus. Most strikingly, an ICA feature representing a bilateral frontal pole network was consistently seen in the ten highest feature results when ranked on differences found in the amplitude of their feature signals. The implication of this frontal pole network and the spatial variability which spans regions comprising of bilateral frontal/temporal lobes and parietal lobules suggests that they might play a significant role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
    Neuroinformatics 12/2010; 8(4):213-29. · 2.97 Impact Factor
  • Article: WITHDRAWN: Erratum to "Does function follow form?: Methods to fuse structural and functional brain images show decreased linkage in schizophrenia" [NeuroImage 49 (2010) 2626-2637].
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    ABSTRACT: This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.
    NeuroImage 03/2010; · 5.89 Impact Factor
  • Article: The COMT Val108/158Met polymorphism and medial temporal lobe volumetry in patients with schizophrenia and healthy adults.
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    ABSTRACT: Abnormalities of the medial temporal lobe have been consistently demonstrated in schizophrenia. A common functional polymorphism, Val108/158Met, in the putative schizophrenia susceptibility gene, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), has been shown to influence medial temporal lobe function. However, the effects of this polymorphism on volumes of medial temporal lobe structures, particularly in patients with schizophrenia, are less clear. Here we measured the effects of COMT Val108/158Met genotype on the volume of two regions within the medial temporal lobe, the amygdala and hippocampus, in patients with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects. We obtained MRI and genotype data for 98 schizophrenic patients and 114 matched controls. An automated atlas-based segmentation algorithm was used to generate volumetric measures of the amygdala and hippocampus. Regression analyses included COMT met allele load as an additive effect, and also controlled for age, intracranial volume, gender and acquisition site. Across patients and controls, each copy of the COMT met allele was associated on average with a 2.6% increase in right amygdala volume, a 3.8% increase in left amygdala volume and a 2.2% increase in right hippocampus volume. There were no effects of COMT genotype on volumes of the whole brain and prefrontal regions. Thus, the COMT Val108/158Met polymorphism was shown to influence medial temporal lobe volumes in a linear-additive manner, mirroring its effect on dopamine catabolism. Taken together with previous work, our data support a model in which lower COMT activity, and a resulting elevation in extracellular dopamine levels, stimulates growth of medial temporal lobe structures.
    NeuroImage 12/2009; 53(3):992-1000. · 5.89 Impact Factor
  • Article: Antipsychotic dose equivalents and dose-years: a standardized method for comparing exposure to different drugs.
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    ABSTRACT: A standardized quantitative method for comparing dosages of different drugs is a useful tool for designing clinical trials and for examining the effects of long-term medication side effects such as tardive dyskinesia. Such a method requires establishing dose equivalents. An expert consensus group has published charts of equivalent doses for various antipsychotic medications for first- and second-generation medications. These charts were used in this study. Regression was used to compare each drug in the experts' charts to chlorpromazine and haloperidol and to create formulas for each relationship. The formulas were solved for chlorpromazine 100 mg and haloperidol 2 mg to derive new chlorpromazine and haloperidol equivalents. The formulas were incorporated into our definition of dose-years such that 100 mg/day of chlorpromazine equivalent or 2 mg/day of haloperidol equivalent taken for 1 year is equal to one dose-year. All comparisons to chlorpromazine and haloperidol were highly linear with R(2) values greater than .9. A power transformation further improved linearity. By deriving a unique formula that converts doses to chlorpromazine or haloperidol equivalents, we can compare otherwise dissimilar drugs. These equivalents can be multiplied by the time an individual has been on a given dose to derive a cumulative value measured in dose-years in the form of (chlorpromazine equivalent in mg) x (time on dose measured in years). After each dose has been converted to dose-years, the results can be summed to provide a cumulative quantitative measure of lifetime exposure.
    Biological psychiatry 11/2009; 67(3):255-62. · 8.93 Impact Factor

Institutions

  • 2009–2012
    • The Mind Research Network
      Albuquerque, NM, USA
  • 2002–2012
    • University of Iowa
      • • Department of Radiology
      • • Department of Psychiatry
      Iowa City, IA, USA
  • 2010
    • Rochester Institute of Technology
      Rochester, NY, USA
  • 2005–2006
    • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
      • Department of Psychiatry
      Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • 2004
    • Mental Health Center of Denver
      Denver, CO, USA