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17 - Development of thalamocortical circuitry and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

By
Darlene S. Melchitzky  and
David A. Lewis
Edited by
Matcheri S. Keshavan ,
James L. Kennedy  and
Robin M. Murray
Darlene S. Melchitzky
Affiliation:
Mercyhurst College, Erie, USA
David A. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA
Matcheri S. Keshavan
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
James L. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto
Robin M. Murray
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
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Summary

Schizophrenia is a multithetic disorder in which the diverse signs and illness symptoms arise as a result of dysfunction in a number of brain regions. Individuals with schizophrenia perform poorly on cognitive tasks that require the use of working memory: the ability to maintain information "on line" in order to guide behavior. Both imaging and postmortem studies have revealed abnormalities in the thalamus of subjects with schizophrenia. Evidence for abnormalities in mediodorsal nucleus (MDN) to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) projections includes reductions of both pre- and postsynaptic markers for the axons. The discussed findings suggest that alterations in MDN-DLPFC circuitry play a critical role in the pathophysiology of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Relatively few studies have examined details of the organization of MDN-DLPFC circuitry in primates, and much of our understanding of the functional attributes of this circuitry represents reasonable but speculative extrapolation from studies of sensory thalamic systems.

Keywords

cognitive dysfunctiondorsolateral prefrontal cortexmediodorsal nucleusthalamocortical circuitryschizophreniapathophysiology
Type
Chapter
Information
Neurodevelopment and Schizophrenia , pp. 310 - 329
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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