Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, HMS Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center

and HMS Psychiatry and Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital

Larry J. Seidman, Ph.D, Jill M. Goldstein, Ph.D..,;Goldstein, Jill M.,, Stephen V. Faraone, Ph.D..,;Faraone, Stephen V.,, Stephen L. Buka, D.Sc..,;Buka, Stephen L.,,Goodman, Julie,Rosen, Bruce, William Stone, Ph.D., Ming T. Tsuang, M.D., Ph.D.; Collaborators: Verne Caviness, M.D., Ph.D.Caviness, Verne,, Nikos Makris, M.D., Ph.D., David Kennedy, Ph.D.Kennedy, David,, Bruce Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., Anders Dale, Ph.D., Bruce Fischl, Ph.D., Alan Green, M.D.

Overall goals of the program are to further understand the etiology and pathophysiology of the major psychoses, in particular, identifying the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to schizophrenia. We focus largely on large-scale, population-based family studies to evaluate structural and functional brain abnormalities in persons with schizophrenia and in genetically related subjects (offspring, siblings, parents) at different developmental epochs, ranging from early teen years to late adult life. Measures of brain function (using functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, spectroscopy, MEG, and psychophysiological responses) and brain structure (using MRI) are linked to measures of symptomatology, neurocognition, prenatal and perinatal events, genetic vulnerability, and gonadal steroid hormones. Age (particularly adolescence) and sex effects on brain function and structure are an important focus of study with psychotic (and spectrum) disorders and in normal comparisons.

Grant Support (Current). NIMH: RO1 MH 43518, Psychopathology and heterogeneity in schizophrenia: Adolescent development and risk for schizophrenia (MTT); RO1 MH 50647, Neurodevelopmental Study of Schizophrenia (MTT); RO1 MH56956, Sex & Structural Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia (JMG); RO3 MH55748, Sex & Attention: Application of fMRI (Phase I) and Hormones and Brain Function (Phase II) (JMG). Stanley Foundation: FMRI and sustained attention of non-psychotic first-degree biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia (LJS); Improved classification & measurement of obstetric complications: Relative risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (SLB). NARSAD: Are Medial Limbic and Prefrontal Brain Abnormalities Unique to Schizophrenia? fMRI Study Using a Bipolar Sib-pair Design (LJS).

Project Sites: Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center; and Massachusetts General Hospital-Charlestown (MGH-NMR Center).

Directors: Larry J. Seidman, Ph.D. and Jill M. Goldstein, Ph.D., Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115. Office numbers: LJS: (617) 626-9386; JMG. (617) 626-9395; FAX: (617) 734-7915.

Training Opportunities: There are many training opportunities available, including pre- and postdoctoral fellowships, psychiatry fellows, and junior faculty from within HMS and international fellows that work with us. Fellows from the Medical School, psychiatry residency, Psychology Departments, and the School of Public Health work with us. Our faculty has also been on doctoral committees in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and epidemiology, and genetics.

Representative Publications:

Seidman, LJ, Breiter, H, Goodman, JM, Goldstein, JM, Woodruff, P, O'Craven, K, Savoy, R, Tsuang, MT, Rosen, B. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of auditory vigilance with low and high information processing demands. Neuropsychology, 1998, 12: 505-517.

Seidman, LJ, Faraone, SV, Goldstein, JM, Goodman, JM, Kremen, WS, Toomey, R, Tourville, J, Kennedy, D, Makris, N, Caviness, VS, Tsuang, MT. Thalamic and amygdala-hippocampal volume reductions in first degree relatives of schzophrenic patients: An MRI-based morphometric analysis, Biological Psychiatry 1999, 46: 941-954.

Goldstein, JM, Goodman, JM, Seidman, LJ, Kennedy, D, Makris, N, Lee, H, Tourville, J, Caviness, VS, Faraone, SV, Tsuang, MT. Cortical abnormalities in schizophrenia identified by structural magnetic resonance imaging. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1999, 56: 537-547.

Goldstein, JM, Seidman, LJ, O'Brien, L, Horton, N, Kennedy, DN, Makris, N, Caviness, VS, Faraone, SV, Tsuang, MT. Impact of normal sexual dimorphisms on sex differences in structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2001, in press.

Seidman, LJ, Faraone, SV, Goldstein, JM, Kremen, WS, Horton, NJ, Makris, N, Toomey, R, Kennedy, DN, Caviness, VS, Tsuang, MT. Left hippocampal volume as a vulnerability indicator for schizophrenia: An MRI morphometric study of non-psychotic first degree relatives. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2001, in press.