Generic placeholder image

Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1568-0266
ISSN (Online): 1873-4294

Adolescent Risk Pathways Toward Schizophrenia: Sustained Attention and the Brain

Author(s): V.A. Diwadkar

Volume 12, Issue 21, 2012

Page: [2339 - 2347] Pages: 9

DOI: 10.2174/1568026611212210006

Price: $65

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a complex epigenetic puzzle, the antecedents of which are presumed to lie in neurodevelopmental dysmaturation. This dysmaturation has an impact on children and adolescents at genetic risk for schizophrenia. In this framework, normative mechanisms of brain development that are highly dynamic in adolescence are likely to be disrupted in the at-risk adolescent brain. It is likely that what is affected is the integrity of brain networks that sub-serve fundamental domains of function such as sustained attention. Notably, expansion in proficiency in sustained attention that is characteristic of typical development is likely to be compromised in adolescents at risk for schizophrenia. This confluence of at-risk adolescents and neuro-behavioral domains of inquiry is discussed. We outline the evidence for developmental antecedents of schizophrenia, and their bases in systems and molecular mechanisms in the brain. Then we juxtapose these results against neuro-behavioral evidence of attention deficits in high-risk populations, and fMRI evidence of dysfunctional responses in critical brain regions. We end by advocating the application of systems-based approaches toward understanding the progression of network dysfunction in the adolescent risk-state.

Keywords: Sustained attention, schizophrenia, risk, Brain networks.


Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy