Week 6: Current Directions in Psychological Science Flashcards
What brain regions are affected in schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is associated with changes in the prefrontal and medial temporal lobe regions.
How do imaging techniques help in understanding schizophrenia?
Imaging techniques allow repeated assessments across pre- and post-onset stages of schizophrenia and in relation to critical periods of brain development.
What is the emerging view of schizophrenia from neuroimaging research?
Schizophrenia is fundamentally a disorder of disrupted neural connectivity influenced by genetic and environmental risk factors.
What structural abnormalities are observed in schizophrenia?
Reduced gray matter volume and disrupted white matter integrity have been observed, which may be progressive in early stages of the disorder.
What cognitive tasks show abnormal neural activity in schizophrenia?
Patients exhibit abnormal neural activity in tasks assessing short-term memory, long-term memory, decision-making, and emotion processing.
What are some consistent MRI findings in schizophrenia?
Reduced gray matter volumes in medial temporal, superior temporal, and prefrontal areas critical for episodic memory, auditory processing, and decision-making.
What hereditary factors influence gray matter abnormalities in schizophrenia?
Twin and candidate gene studies show that gray matter abnormalities are partially hereditary and modulated by intrauterine risk exposures like fetal hypoxia.
What do postmortem studies reveal about cortical gray matter reduction?
Cortical gray matter reduction does not reflect loss of cell bodies but reduced dendritic complexity and synaptic density.
How do longitudinal MRI studies support schizophrenia’s developmental abnormalities?
Studies show greater prefrontal surface contraction in individuals who later develop psychosis, indicating a primary pathological process.
What evidence supports schizophrenia as a disorder of disrupted neural connectivity?
White matter volume reductions and structural abnormalities have been observed in first-episode and chronic patients.
Why is myelination significant in schizophrenia research?
Myelination continues into late adolescence, which coincides with the typical onset of psychosis, suggesting its role in the disorder.
How does diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) contribute to schizophrenia research?
DTI reveals decreased fractional anisotropy in major white matter tracts, affecting cognitive abilities like working and long-term memory.
What developmental trajectory is seen in schizophrenia’s white matter changes?
White matter abnormalities are present before disease onset, indicating they may be core contributors rather than secondary effects of illness or treatment.
How is machine learning used in schizophrenia diagnosis?
Machine learning algorithms analyze MRI patterns to differentiate patients from controls with high accuracy and predict psychosis risk.
What functional deficits are observed in schizophrenia?
Deficits in working memory and episodic memory, along with abnormal functional activation, are seen in patients and at-risk individuals.
How does schizophrenia affect resting-state brain activity?
Patients show disrupted functional connectivity in the default mode network, which may contribute to cognitive and emotional deficits.
What role does behavioral performance play in fMRI studies of schizophrenia?
Differences in prefrontal activation may be related to patients’ ability to recruit working memory circuitry.
What are future research directions in schizophrenia neuroimaging?
Future studies aim to determine molecular bases of brain changes and improve diagnostic/prognostic MRI applications.
