Citation

Lee TY, Kim SN, Jang JH, Shim G, Jung WH, Shin NY, Kwon JS. Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry 2013; 45: 165-169.

Affiliation

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pnpbp.2013.04.008

PMID

23603064

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Impulsivity is one of the most commonly reported behavioral characteristics of patients with schizophrenia. Although there is accumulating evidence regarding behavioral problems in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis, as yet, no study has reported on impulsivity in this population. The aim of the present study was to assess impulsivity in UHR subjects and to investigate the associated grey matter correlates. METHOD: This study included 32 UHR subjects and 32 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale Version-11 (BIS-11) was employed to assess impulsivity. Differences between the groups in grey matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were assessed. Then, a correlational analysis between the BIS-11 scores and significant clusters of grey matter volume was conducted in UHR subjects. RESULTS: UHR subjects were more impulsive than HC subjects in terms of attention (t = 3.5187, p < 0.01), motor (t = 3.1751, p < 0.01), and non-planning (t = 4.4154, p < 0.01) scores. The grey matter volume of the ACC was negatively correlated with the motor (r = -0.472, p < 0.01) and non-planning (r = -0.354, p = 0.04) scores of the BIS-11 in UHR subjects. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that impulsivity in UHR subjects may reflect altered integrated conflict processing, which likely stems from abnormalities in the ACC, rather than altered reward/punishment processing or executive control.

Language: en