Project Summary

William P. Hetrick, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2004) of Indiana University, points out that schizophrenia may be due to problems with the temporal coordination of cognitive, affective and motor behavior arising from abnormalities in the cortico-cerebellar-thalamic-cortical brain circuit. The circuit facilitates communication among these brain areas and is responsible for temporally coordinating and synchronizing cognitive, affective, and motor processes. But little research has been directly aimed at investigating neural timing circuits in psychiatric disorders. The proposed study will examine the functional integrity of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and hippocampus--structures known to participate in the temporal coordination of behavior--in people with schizophrenia. The results should complement existing knowledge about the cerebellum in schizophrenia and could further identify the associated functional deficits.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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