Psychiatry Research Seminar: Gabriella Blokland - Quantifying the heritability of task-related brain activation and performance during the N-back working memory task: A twin fMRI study.

Primary Information
Date:	Friday, 06 November 2009
Time:	12:30pm - 1:30pm
Room:	Conference Room, K Floor
UQ Location:	Mental Health Centre, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (Herston)
Event Information
Description:	Quantifying the heritability of task-related brain activation and performance during the N-back working memory task: A twin fMRI study. While structural MRI studies consistently show a moderate to strong influence of genes on brain structure, it is largely unknown to what extent individual differences in neural activity, as captured by fMRI, are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Working memory related brain activation has been widely studied using the N-back working memory task, and inefficient or abnormal function is evident in several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, and in the healthy siblings of patients for some disorders. Deficits in physiological function may therefore not only be associated with a disease, but may also reflect familial (possibly genetic) factors predisposing to the disorder. Using a regions-of-interest analysis we investigated the heritability of brain activation during the N-back working memory task in a sample of young adult twins and provided the first support that individual variation in working memory related brain activation is to some extent influenced by genes. Most recently we have extended this to a voxel-by-voxel analysis in a much larger twin sample. Methodologies and results from both studies will be presented, and the possible implications of these findings will be discussed. Gabriella Blokland M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, M.Sc. Neurosciences Gabriëlla is a Queensland Institute of Medical Research and University of Queensland PhD Candidate. The focus of her PhD is to investigate the genetics of healthy brain structure and function in a large sample of Australian twins and their non-twin siblings. Gabriëlla’s project is co-supervised by Dr Margie Wright (Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research), Dr Greig de Zubicaray and Dr Katie McMahon (Centre for Magnetic Resonance, The University of Queensland) and is funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, USA, and National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. In addition to investigating the genetics of brain function during an N-back working memory task, her research will focus on the genetics of white matter microstructure, as measured with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and will combine information from those two modalities in a genetic analysis of functional connectivity. Towards the latter goal, Gabriëlla visited UCLA for several months earlier this year to work with collaborators at the Laboratory of NeuroImaging. This visit was supported by a QIMR Postgraduate Student Travel Award, and by travel grants from the Centre for Magnetic Resonance and the Australian Twin Registry. ------------------------- The Psychiatry Research Seminar was established in 2005 by the Discipline of Psychiatry. It has built up a good audience due to some very accomplished international, interstate and local speakers. The Psychiatry Research Seminar is intended to target a broad research audience on topics related to research in mental illness focusing on psychotic disorders. It is held at 12.30pm preceded by a light lunch at 12 midday.
Event Category:	Other events / Science/Medical / Seminars & workshops / Public lectures /
Contact Information
Name:	Ms Luminita Vlad
Phone:	55153
Email:	l.vlad@uq.edu.au
Org. Unit:	Medicine
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