Brain activation induced by psychological stress in nonpsychotic siblings of patients with schizophrenia

CASTRO, M.N.; PAPÁVERO, E.; BOLOTINSKY, N.; COSTANZO, E.Y.; DRUCAROFF, L.; WAINSZTEIN, A.; DE PINO, G.; FAZZITO, L.; GARCÍA, C.; DUARTE-ABRITTA, B.; NEMEROFF, C.B.; GUINJOAN, S.M.; VILLARREAL, M.F.

Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry

Elsevier

Año: 2017 vol. 1-2 p. 74 - 80

2468-1717

There is compelling evidence that environmental factors together with a large predisposing geneticcomponent contribute to the risk for schizophrenia. Among such factors, psychosocial stress has been consideredof paramount importance prior to the onset of psychotic symptoms. In order to characterize thebrain response to mental arithmetic stress in individuals genetically predisposed to schizophrenia, weemployed 3T-fMRI in 13 nonpsychotic siblings of patients with schizophrenia and in 13 healthy individuals.After a period of 6 min of resting state acquisition, a block design was utilized, including three blocks ofa 1-min control-task, 1-min stress-task and 1-min rest after task. Nonpsychotic siblings displayed severaldifferences in brain activity as compared with healthy individuals, including failure to engage the righthippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during stress and shortly thereafter. In addition, in this grouphippocampal function was associated with cognitive performance rather than perceived stress. Indeed perceivedstress was in contrast associated with activation of bilateral OFC and insulae. The pattern of brainactivation observed may represent the CNS correlate of previous observations on heightened sensitivityto psychosocial stress in persons at increased genetic risk for schizophrenia. Its potential usefulness as amarker of increased genetic predisposition to schizophrenia requires further investigation.