Project Summary

Anthony D. Wagner, Ph.D. (Independent Investigator 2005) of Stanford University, notes that declarative memory (conscious memory for everyday life experiences) is dependent on the medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system, which functions abnormally in schizophrenia patients. Initial data suggests this may be specific to particular subregions of the hippocampus. Postmortem studies indicate that pathology is most prominent in two subfields of the hippocampus—CA3 and CA4, with another region, CA1, relatively spared, while regional cerebral blood flow data indicates pathology in the anterior extent of the MTL. These effects are accompanied by behavioral deficits on declarative memory tasks. Using high-resolution fMRI and anatomical segmentation techniques, Dr. Wagner will seek to understand hippocampus dysfunction in people with schizophrenia through functional characteristics of the mnemonic processes supported by specific subregions of the hippocampus and the surrounding MTL cortices. The region CA3 may be differentially affected in schizophrenia patients, so Dr. Wagner will test whether the hippocampal processes that may form conjunctive representations that bind event elements into a unified memory are particularly dependent on CA3. By testing anatomically-informed models of MTL substructure functioning in healthy adults and people with schizophrenia, Dr. Wagner hopes to advance the understanding of disease-related MTL dysfunction.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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