Attention, cognition, and motor perseveration in adolescents at genetic risk for schizophrenia and control subjects

Childhood Cognitive Functioning in Schizophrenia Patients and Their Unaffected Siblings: A Prospective Cohort Study

“…Consistent with the results of numerous prior studies of children at elevated genetic risk for schizophrenia (Mednick and Schulsinger 1968;Landau et al 1972;Asamow et al 1978;Rutschmann et al 1980;Harvey et al 1981;Winters et al 1981;Worland et al 1982;Driscoll 1984;Lifshitz et al 1985;Sohlberg 1985;Hallett et al 1986;Fish 1987;Goodman 1987;Sameroff et al 1987;Weintraub 1987;Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al 1989;Schreiber et al 1992;Marcus et al 1993;Bergman and Walker 1995), in this study cognitive deficits were also observed among the unaffected siblings of preschizophrenia patients at 4 and 7 years of age, regardless of whether siblings with adult psychiatric disorders were included. Given that a substantial number of the first degree relatives of schizophrenia patients carry a predisposing genotype without manifesting the disorder phenotypically (Fisher 1973;Gottesman and Bertelsen 1989), this pattern is consistent with an association between presence of a genetic diathesis to schizophrenia and expression of cognitive dysfunction during childhood.…”

“…Prospective examination of cognitive functioning in individuals who develop schizophrenia as adults provides an indirect means to address these questions. Longitudinal "high-risk" studies have consistently reported that children of patients with schizophrenia perform more poorly on neuropsychological tests than children of other people (Mednick and Schulsinger 1968;Landau et al 1972;Asarnow et al 1978;Rutschmann et al 1980;Harvey et al 1981;Winters et al 1981;Worland et al 1982;Driscoll 1984;Lifshitz et al 1985;Sohlberg 1985;Hallett et al 1986;Fish 1987;Goodman 1987;Sameroff et al 1987;Weintraub 1987;Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al 1989;Schreiber et al 1992;Marcus et al 1993;Bergman and Walker 1995). These findings suggest that early signs of brain compromise in preschizophrenia subjects may be mediated at least in part by genetic predisposition to the disorder.…”

Abnormal pitch mismatch negativity in individuals with schizotypal personality disorder

“…On the other hand, some reports have suggested reduced MMN in clinically vulnerable populations (Oknina et al, 2005; Oades et al, 2006; Schreiber et al, 1992; Bar-Haim et al, 2003) and in first episode schizophrenia patients 1.5 years after first hospitalization (Salisbury et al, 2007). This result also contrasts with the pattern of results obtained for SPD subjects across several different domains where, if one applied a simple model of a linear progression of severity, SPD subjects were the least severely affected and chronic schizophrenia patients were the most severely affected.…”

“…Also, reduced MMN was found in patients 3.5 years into their illness (Javitt et al, 2000), in recent onset schizophrenia (Umbricht et al, 2006) and those first episode patients who presented with low pre-morbid educational achievement (Umbricht et al, 2006). Also, reduced MMN has been reported in adolescents at the onset of illness (Oknina et al, 2005; Oades et al, 2006), adolescent individuals with 22q11 deletion syndrome who did not manifest schizophrenia (Baker et al, 2005), and in children at high risk for schizophrenia (Schreiber et al, 1992), and socially withdrawn children (Bar-Haim et al, 2003). Reduced duration MMN has also been reported in relatives of schizophrenia patients (Michie et al, 2002), and in prodromal subjects relative to normal controls (but not significantly) (Brokhaus-Dumke et al, 2005).…”

Development of Inattention, Impulsivity, and Processing Speed as Measured by the d2 Test: Results of a Large Cross-sectional Study in Children Aged 7–13

“…We do not know of previous studies that investigated the development of selective attention using the d2 Test. However, the d2 Test is commonly used in neuropsychological studies of children, among others in studies of the effect of neurofeedback treatment for ADHD (Fuchs, Birbaumer, Lutzenberger, Gruzelier, & Kaiser, 2003), the neuropsychological markers of schizophrenia in adolescents (Klemm, Schmidt, Knappe, & Blanz, 2006;Schreiber, Stolz-Born, Heinrich, Kornhuber, & Born, 1992), the neuropsychological effects of irradiation for childhood leukemia (Langer et al, 2002), the remediation of attention deficits (Penkman, 2004), the neuropsychological profiles of children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy (Lendt, Helmstaedter, & Elger, 1999), the neuropsychological profiles of early treated children with phenylketonuria (Weglage et al, 1999;Weglage, Pietsch, Funders, Koch, & Ullrich, 1996), and the influence of methylphenidate on cortical processing of children with ADHD (Wienbruch, Paul, Bauer, & Kivelitz, 2005). Because children who have not learned the difference between the characters "d" and "p" cannot be tested with the d2 Test (Brickenkamp & Zillmer, 1998), we chose to study children in the second (age 7) and higher grades of school in order to be certain that they had sufficient knowledge of the characters used.…”