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Abstract:
Abstract: Specific Aim: To examine the relationship between
age, information processing speed and motor speed in patients with
schizophrenia compared to healthy subjects (HS). Methods: Digit
Symbol (DS) and finger tapping (FT) performance were examined in
353 patients and 339 comparison subjects ages 30 82. Structural
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained on a subset of 144
patients and 56 healthy subjects. The relationship of regional
brain volumes, diagnosis, and test performance was examined using
regression analyses. Results: Increasing age was associated with
slower performance in both DS and FT in patients. Longer duration
of treatment and younger age of onset also predicted slower motor
speed performance in patients. Healthy subjects displayed slower
performance only on DS with increased age. Structural MRI
demonstrated that increasing age and slower DS performance were
associated with smaller frontal, temporal and occipital lobe
volumes in patients compared to HS. In contrast, age-associated FT
performance was related only to frontal and parietal volume
differences in patients compared to HS. Conclusions: Patients may
be vulnerable to both decreased processing speed and motor speed
while HS may have greater preservation of motor speed with age.
Age-associated structural differences appear related to DS
performance to a greater extent than FT performance.
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