The scientific conferences of the CERVO Research Center and NeuroQuébec invite you to the lecture by Dr. Steven Silverstein, “Disturbances of Retinal Neural and Vascular Structure in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, and their Clinical Implications”, on Friday, August 29 at 11:00 a.m. You are invited to attend the presentation in room F-1455.

Dr. Silverstein will be available for a discussion with students after his lecture, at 12:00 p.m. in room F-5471. Lunch will be provided, and since seating is limited, students interested in attending are invited to register by clicking on the link below.

Dr. Silverstein will also be available for individual meetings before and after his lecture. Please feel free to sign up for one of the available time slots if you would like to meet with him:

Lunch and meeting with the speaker

You are warmly invited to attend this lecture and to show your interest in the research of our guest.

For more information about this event, please consult the attached poster.

Thank you,

Shirley Fecteau, Gabriel Bossé & Antoine Godin

It is often stated that the retina provides a window to the brain. This is well documented in neurodegenerative disorders, where reductions in retinal neural layer thickness and volume are related to cognitive impairment, loss of brain tissue, and illness progression. This also appears to be the case for schizophrenia. However, while nearly all retinal imaging studies in schizophrenia indicate impairments, the association with diagnosis is not strong.  This is likely due to differences in the extent of retinal thinning in earlier vs later stages of illness, and on retinal neurodegeneration being most pronounced in only one or more subtypes of patient.  In this presentation, I will review findings from studies using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) that demonstrate retinal neural layer thinning and reductions in retinal microvasculature density in schizophrenia. These data also indicate that the findings in schizophrenia are more pronounced than in patients with mood disorders, and that they correlate significantly with the polygenic risk score for schizophrenia and with genes that code for the neuroinflammatory response. Data from our clinical high risk for psychosis population are, overall, within the normal range, but patients with the lowest microvasculature density values (and to a lesser extent neural layer thickness values) are those with the highest levels of positive and negative symptoms, perhaps indicating higher risk to develop a psychotic disorder. Overall, the data suggest that retinal neural layer thinning is progressive in schizophrenia and that it is associated with accelerated aging, although the extent to which this is continuous, or greatest after the first psychotic episode, needs further study.