[MRI-parameters of frontal lobes in schizophrenia: correlations with the level of autoantibodies to nerve growth factor in the blood serum].

The relationship between MRI-parameters of frontal lobes and levels of autoantibodies to nerve growth factor (Aab-NGF) in the blood serum of patients with schizophrenia and their relatives was studied. The negative correlation between the Aab-NGF level and the total volume of frontal lobes (r= -0,59; p<0,01) was found in the group of patients. No significant correlations were found in the control groups of healthy subjects without family history of schizophrenia and relatives of patients. The authors concede that Aab-NGF may play a substantial role in the development of neuromorphological changes in schizophrenia.

[Memory peculiarities in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives].

Eighty-four families with schizophrenia: 84 patients (probands) and 73 their first-degree unaffected relatives as well as 37 normals and their relatives have been studied using pathopsychological (pictogram) and Luria's neuropsychological tests. The most prominent abnormalities both in patients and relatives were global characteristics of auditory-speech memory predominantly related to left subcortical and left temporal regions. Abnormalities of immediate recall of short logic story (SLS) were connected with dysfunction of the same brain regions. Less prominent delayed recall abnormalities of SLS were revealed only in patients and connected with left subcortical, left subcortical-frontal and left subcortical-temporal zones. This abnormality was absent in relatives and age-matched controls. The span of mediated retention was decreased in patients and, to a less degree, in relatives. A quantitative psychological analysis has demonstrated the disintegration ("schizys") between semantic conception and image memory structure in patients and, to a less degree, in relatives. Data obtained show primary memory abnormalities in families with schizophrenia related to the impairment of decoding information process in the subcortical structures, the left-side dysfunction of brain structures being predominantly typical.