Measurement of Fronto-limbic Activity Using an Emotional Oddball Task in Children with Familial High Risk for SchizophreniaSarah J. Hart 1,2, Joseph J. Shaffer 1,3, Joshua Bizzell 1,2, Mariko Weber 1,3, Mary A. McMahon 2, Hongbin Gu 1, Diana O. Perkins 1, Aysenil Belger 1,2
1Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, 3Curriculum in Neurobiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This paper describes how to use the emotional oddball task and fMRI to measure brain activation in children and adolescents at familial high risk for schizophrenia (FHR). FMRI was used to measure differences in fronto-striato-limbic regions during an emotional oddball task. Children with FHR exhibited abnormal functional activation during adolescence.