Neuroimaging and the Cognitive Neuroscience of Schizophrenia

The Carmel Workshop on Cognitive Psychophysiology began in 1980, and the focus of the 1996 workshop was on schizophrenia. Research into schizophrenia is in the midst of a period of unparalleled advance, driven in large part, by improvements in neuroimaging technology that make detailed examination of in vivo brain structure and function possible. Neuroimaging studies may help provide a bridge between investigations demonstrating molecular and cellular abnormalities in schizophrenia and those demonstrating cognitive dysfunction. The workshop brought together experts in different neuroimaging modalities to present the strengths and advantages of each, as well as the insights each modality might bring into normal and schizophrenic cognition. It began with a series of tutorials to inform participants of the state of the art in various disciplines. It then broke into four panels, each given a very specific topic assignment related to neuroimaging and/or the cognitive neuroscience of. schizophrenia. After VA days of discussion, each panel reported its conclusions to the workshop. Croup I presented cellular models of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Group II examined experimental paradigms for studying cognitive function and schizophrenia. Croup III examined technical issues in image processing and combining data across different modalities. Group IV sought to survey the current state of knowledge about the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The conclusions of each of the groups are presented in this report. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 22(4): 703-725,1996. The field of schizophrenia is now in the midst of unparalleled advances, largely because of new technologies that have made it possible to examine the in vivo brain with functional and structural resolution possible only in animals a decade ago. Furthermore, basic neuroscientists have become interested in the possibility of bridging work at the cellular level with cognitive work, and this trend is now becoming evident in the basic research relevant to schizophrenia. The Carmel Conference was designed to bring together experts in the various neuroimaging modalities and in basic neuroscience for sustained interaction in focused discussion groups. The following reports of the four discussion groups, compiled and edited by each chairperson, furnish a snapshot of current activity in the field and offer suggestions for promising future lines of work.