Imaging the vulnerable brain. Functional and structural MRI in Psychosis Proneness.

Symptoms of psychosis (e.g., hallucinations, unusual beliefs) do not only occur in people with a mental illness, like schizophrenia. There are healthy people in the general population who experience subclinical symptoms of psychosis, which are less severe and do not have clinical relevance. People with subclinical symptoms can be identified with questionnaires, which are used as an index of Psychosis Proneness (PP). Having a high score of PP represents a 10-fold increased risk to develop psychosis. Current views propose that there is etiological continuity between clinical and subclinical forms of psychosis. Neuroimaging studies have documented a number of abnormalities in brain function and structure of patients with schizophrenia. In the present thesis, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used to examine brain function and structure in a group of healthy students with high and low levels of PP. The main goal was to determine whether some of the features associated with clinically relevant psychosis are also associated with vulnerability for its development. The results suggested that high PP was associated with differences in brain activation, functional connectivity (the association between activity of different brain regions), and brain structure. The observed abnormalities were located in regions that have been previously involved in schizophrenia (predominantly the prefrontal cortex and the cingulate gyrus). The present findings support the notion of continuity between subclinical and clinical forms of psychosis. Future studies in these individuals with a longitudinal focus should illuminate whether the observed differences may have predictive value for transition to clinical psychosis.

	Titel en inhoudsopgave
	Hoofdstuk 1
	Hoofdstuk 2
	Hoofdstuk 3
	Nederlandse samenvatting
	Engelse samenvatting
	Spaanse samenvatting
	Literatuuropgave [in het Spaans]
	Catalaanse samenvatting
	Dankwoord
	Curriculum vitae
	Volledige dissertatie

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