Cognitive abilities and 50- and 100-msec paired-click processes in schizophrenia.

Objective: Abnormal 50- and 100-msec event-related brain activity derived from paired-click procedures are well established in schizophrenia. There is little agreement on whether group differences in the ratio score, i.e.

Glutamatergic dysfunction in schizophrenia: from basic neuroscience to clinical psychopharmacology.

The underlying cellular mechanisms leading to frontal cortical hypofunction (i.e., hypofrontality) in schizophrenia remain unclear.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder-associated depression: evidence for reductions in the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in a mouse model.

Prenatal ethanol exposure is associated with an increased incidence of depressive disorders in patient populations. However, the mechanisms that link prenatal ethanol exposure and depression are unknown. Several recent studies have implicated reduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in the hippocampal formation and frontal cortex as important contributors to the etiology of depression.

Increased expression of activity-dependent genes in cerebellar glutamatergic neurons of patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the functional state of glutamatergic neurons in the cerebellar cortex of patients with schizophrenia.

Method: The authors measured messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels of three activity-dependent genes expressed by glutamatergic neurons in the cerebellar cortex (GAP-43, BDNF, and GABA OLE_LINK2>(A)-delta subunit) in the tissues of 14 patients with schizophrenia and 14 matched nonpsychiatric comparison subjects. Since its level of expression does not change in response to neuronal activity, gamma-aminobutyric acid(A)-alpha6 subunit mRNA was used as a control.