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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Measurement of Fronto-limbic Activity Using an Emotional Oddball Task in Children with Familial High Risk for Schizophrenia
Published on: December 2, 2015
Neurocognitive function in an extended Afrikaner-ancestry family with affective illness
Jonathan Savitz1, Lize van der Merwe, Mark Solms
1Division of Human Genetics, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa. savitzj@mail.nih.gov
Objective:
To characterize the neuropsychological profile of an extended family with unipolar depression (UPD) and other forms of affective illness.
Method:
We administered a battery of neuropsychological tasks measuring various aspects of executive function and visual and verbal memory to 49 individuals in 1 extended family. Six participants had 1 lifetime episode of major depression (MDE-S), 15 were diagnosed with recurrent major depression (MDE-R), 11 had another DSM-IV diagnosis and 17 subjects were unaffected.
Results:
After controlling for multiple confounding factors, including mood and medication, the MDE-R sample made significantly more errors than unaffected relatives on the Stroop Task, a measure of cognitive control.
Conclusion:
There may be at least 1 subtype of UPD characterized by a state-independent deficit in cognitive control.
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