USE OF A NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL TRAIT IN LINKAGE ANALYSIS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Traditional diagnostic techniques may not provide all the information necessary to reveal the genetic causes of schizophrenia through linkag e analysis. Use of neurophysiological indicator variables that are ass ociated with the disease may increase the probability of detecting lin kage. Such variables not only produce simpler phenotypes for analysis, but they also may be more proximal to the gene products involved in n eurological dysfunctions underlying schizophrenia. We have used a prev iously characterized neurophysiological variable, the P50 evoked-audit ory response, to search for chromosomal regions that may be of interes t in the study of schizophrenia. Although our scan of over 300 markers did not show strong evidence for linkage to P50 in nine families, thi s exploratory analysis has revealed several chromosomal regions that m ay deserve further study.