The effects of a muscarinic receptor 1 gene variant on cortical thickness and surface area in schizophrenia

Abstract

Individuals with schizophrenia who are homozygous at the c.267C>A single nucleotide polymorphism (rs2067477) within the cholinergic muscarinic M1 receptor gene have been reported to perform less well on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and demonstrate reduced grey matter volume in the right precentral gyrus. We investigated if rs2067477 genotype variation influenced cortical thickness and cortical surface area in a sample of 176 schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder patients using FreeSurfer. We were unable to detect any significant changes to either surface-based measure of brain structure across genotype. Future studies should expand the focus and include SNPs that are in linkage disequili..