PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Liang Wang
AU  - Paul D. Metzak
AU  - William G. Honer
AU  - Todd S. Woodward
TI  - Impaired Efficiency of Functional Networks Underlying Episodic Memory-for-Context in Schizophrenia
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3514-10.2010
DP  - 2010 Sep 29
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 13171--13179
VI  - 30
IP  - 39
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/39/13171.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/39/13171.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2010 Sep 29; 30
AB  - Memory for context and episodic memory have been identified as primary contributors to cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. This study examined neural networks involved in episodic memory-for-context in schizophrenia using a multimodal strategy including a graph theoretical approach, combined with an assessment of the contribution of structural impairments to disruption in the efficiency of functional brain networks. Twenty-three patients with schizophrenia and 33 healthy controls performed an episodic memory-for-context task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Graph theory was used to characterize the small-world properties of functional connections between activated regions, and a morphometric analysis was used to investigate schizophrenia-related structural deficits. Similar functional activations were identified in the two groups; however, although small-world properties were present in the topological organization of the functional networks in both groups, significant reductions in local, but not global, efficiency were observed in the schizophrenia group. Several key network “hub” regions related to recollection, such as the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus, showed reduced gray matter volume in schizophrenia patients. These findings suggest that loss of gray matter volume may contribute to local inefficiencies in the architecture of the network underlying memory-for-context in schizophrenia.