Project Summary

Sergio Paradiso, M.D., Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2005) of the University of Iowa, plans to use imaging to study emotion processing in the brains of schizophrenics. Although functional neuroimaging studies of schizophrenia have fostered understanding of disturbed cognition (e.g., language, perception) in the illness, emotional disturbances, have been less studied with the powerful tools of neuroimaging. Disturbed emotion is a very important aspect of schizophrenia because it is a central manifestation of the illness and because it is a great source of suffering for affected people and their families. In this proposal, Dr. Paradiso aims to observe the functional neuroanatomy associated with emotional response in patients formerly-treated with conventional antipsychotics but off drugs for three weeks, and in patients with a comparable duration of illness but who have not been treated. Dr. Paradiso expects that patients who have been on antipsychotics will show better emotional response than never treated patients. He also expects to find greater abnormalities in the functional neuroanatomy of emotion-processing limbic brain regions in never treated patients.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia\Structural Biology

Search Again