Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Schizophrenia is a severe disorder affecting approximately 340,000 Canadians - about 1% of the population. In 2004, the healthcare and productivity lost cost of schizophrenia in Canada was estimated at $7 billion. Deficits in interacting with the social world are some of the most debilitating aspects of the disorder. Specifically, problems in recognizing emotions on faces contribute to difficulties with many kinds of interpersonal interactions and worsen day-to-day functioning in schizophrenia. Currently, however, there is a lack of information on the biological and genetic underpinnings of these impairments. Therefore, in this project we will use a family study design to investigate deficits in recognizing emotions in people with schizophrenia and their relatives. This study will increase our understanding of brain structure (amount of grey matter), structural connectivity between brain regions (white matter tractography), and functioning (brain activity) associated with temporal lobe regions. Temporal lobe regions are strongly associated with recognition of emotional faces. This study will also investigate the relationship between brain structure and activity and day-to-day functioning in individuals with schizophrenia. We will use magnetic resonance imaging to examine 50 people with schizophrenia, 50 of their siblings, and 50 healthy comparison subjects. Studying healthy family members eliminates the problems of controlling for medication exposure and other illness factors that are often present in studies of schizophrenia. This design makes it likely that deficits that are identified in both affected and unaffected family members are markers of biological changes that are risk factors for schizophrenia. Isolating the biological and genetic basis of problematic social interactions in people with schizophrenia will ultimately aid in developing new treatments to facilitate improved day-to-day functioning.