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Abstract
It has been well established that individuals with schizophrenia have significant impairments in various cognitive processes, including the domain of executive function. There has been a recent push to understand the role genetic etiology may play in such deficits, especially through research on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Polymorphisms of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) have been studied in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders with associated cognitive sequelae, including schizophrenia, though the role of such SNPs in specific cognitive domains remains unclear. The current study examined executive functioning in individuals with schizophrenia, their siblings, and healthy controls as well as the impact of possessing an EGFR SNP, rs845551, on their performance. Data from 72 individuals with schizophrenia, 12 of their siblings, and 69 age-matched controls (from the Northwestern University Schizophrenia Data and Software Tool [NUSDAST] database) were analyzed. Consistent with previous research, individuals with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than their siblings as well as healthy controls on measures of executive function , Trail Making Test-Part B (TMT-B; time to completion) and the Wisconsin Cart Sorting Test (WCST; perseverative errors). Notably, among those with schizophrenia, individuals with polymorphism rs845551 performed significantly worse on both TMT-B and the WCST than those who do not have polymorphism rs845551. A 2 (group membership) x 2 (presence of polymorphism) ANOVA demonstrated significant main effects for group membership and presence of polymorphism, with individuals with schizophrenia as well as individuals with rs8 45551 performing significantly worse on TMT-B and the WCST. There was no significant interaction for these factors. The implications of the current findings, as well as suggestions for future directions, are discussed.
