LANGUAGE SYSTEMS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM DISORDERS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry,
VA Boston Healthcare System, Brockton Division, McLean State Hospital
Margaret Niznikiewicz, Ph.D., Paul Nestor,Ph.D., Dean Salisbury, Ph.D., Kevin Spencer, Ph.D., Cynthia Wible, Ph.D.,Ronald Gurrera, MD., Melissa Frumin, M.D.,.Martina Voglmaier, Ph.D., Larry Seidman, Ph.D., Martha E. Shenton, Ph.D., Robert W. McCarley,MD.
The major emphasis of our research program is to examine the mechanisms underlying thought disorder and language impairment in schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We are particularly interested in building evidence to construct a comprehensive theory of how language dysfunction develops across different subject groups along the continuum of schizophrenia spectrum. We examine both language and cognitive function in schizotypal personality disorder, first break schizophrenia, and chronic schizophrenia patients. We use both traditional measures of language functioning as well as cognitive tasks related to language processing, together with event related potential (ERP) measures and functional MRI, to assess the brain-based abnormality which leads to clinically observable thought disorder in schizophrenia. Our current results indicate that abnormality leading to language dysfunction in schizophrenia, often characterized as formal thought disorder, develops gradually, with the least impairment found in our SPD subjects, and most severe impairment found in male schizophrenic patients. The ongoing research focuses on obtaining further evidence of specific language processes which might be involved in producing language dysfunction in schizophrenia spectrum individuals, as well as developing new tasks which help better delineate the neural substrates of language abnormality.
Key Words. Schizophrenia, SPD, MR Image Processing, functional MRI, Event-related potentials (ERP), language dysfunction, semantic networks.
Grant Support. Veterans Administration Merit Review (523A4/151), Cognitive Neuroscience Studies of Schizophrenia (PGN, MN); Biological Basis of Schizotypal Personality Disorder (NIMH), (PI- RWM)
Project Sites. Department of Psychiatry, Brain Imaging Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Brockton Division; Brain Potential Imaging Laboratory; Surgical Planning Laboratory and Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
Project Director. Margaret Niznikiewicz, Assistant Professor and Paul G. Nestor, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston VA Healthcare System, Brockton Division. Mail Address: Psychiatry 116A, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA 02301. Email: margaret _niznikiewicz@http://hms.harvard.edu
Contact Person. Marie Fairbanks, Departmental Administrator. Tel. No. (508) 583-4500, X2479. FAX. (508) 586-0894. E-Mail Address: marie_fairbanks@http://hms.harvard.edu
Training Opportunities. Currently we have two fellows, several junior faculty, and two full-time Research Assistants working in our laboratory. There are numerous opportunities for research training at all levels and we encourage interested undergraduates, graduate students, and fellows to join us in our research endeavors.
Representative Publications.
Niznikiewicz MA, Donnino R, McCarley RW, Iosifescu DV, Ohta H, Levitt JJ, O'Donnell BF, Nestor PG, Wible CG, Kikinis R, Jolesz FA, Shenton ME. Abnormal angular gyrus asymmetry in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 2000;157:428-437.
Niznikiewicz, MA., O'Donnell, B. F., Nestor, P.G., Smith, L., Law, S., Karapelou, M.E., Shenton, M., McCarley, R.W. ERP assessment of visual and auditory language processing in schizophrenia. J Ab Psychol 1997;106:85-94.
McCarley RW, O'Donnell BF, Niznikiewicz MA, Salisbury DF, Potts GF, Hirayasu Y, Nestor PG, Shenton ME. Update on electrophysiology. Intern Rev Psychiatry 1997;9:373-386.
Nestor, P., Kimble, M., O'Donnell, B.F., Niznikiewicz M A., Shenton, M. E., McCarley, R.W. Aberrant semantic activation in schizophrenia: A neuropsychological study. Am J Psychiatry 1998;154:640-646.
Nestor, P.G., Akdag, S. J., O'Donnell, B. F., Niznikiewicz, M.A., Law, S., Shenton, M.E., McCarley, R.W. Word recall in schizophrenia: Connectionist model. Am J Psychiatry 1998;155:1685-1690.
Niznikiewicz, M.A., Shenton, E., M., Voglmaier, M., Seidman, L., Dickey, Ch., Rhodes, R., The, K. McCarley, R. W. Electrophysiological Correlates of Language Processing in Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 1999;156:1052-1058.