IQ change in schizophrenia related to brain volume

Scimex: An imaging study from NeuRA’s Schizophrenia Laboratory has confirmed that changes in IQ in people with schizophrenia are related to reduced volume in the brain, and that brain regions are differently affected. Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, although they can differ from person to person, are one of the core symptoms of the disorder. Earlier work from Associate Professor Tom Weickert’s lab proposed an IQ-based classification system, centred on IQ trajectories from before illness to after illness onset that could identify three distinct subgroups of schizophrenia.

Does going under for surgery before age 4 impact IQ?

Scimex: A study of children born in Sweden suggests a small association between exposure to anesthesia for surgery before the age 4 with slightly lower school grades at age 16 and slightly lower IQ scores at 18, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Pia Glatz, M.D., of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and coauthors conducted a nationwide study of more than 2 million children born in Sweden from 1973 through 1993 by using a variety of national health care databases, school achievement registries, and the military conscription register.

Popular electric brain stimulation method detrimental to IQ scores

UNC: Using a weak electric current in an attempt to boost brainpower or treat conditions has become popular among scientists and do-it-yourselfers, but a new UNC School of Medicine study shows that using the most common form of electric brain stimulation had a statistically significant detrimental effect on IQ scores. Published in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, the study adds to the increasing amount of literature showing that transcranial direct current stimulation – tDCS – has mixed results when it comes to cognitive enhancement.

Toxic Combination of Air Pollution and Poverty Lowers Child IQ

Columbia: Children born to mothers experiencing economic hardship, who were also exposed during pregnancy to high levels of PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), scored significantly lower on IQ tests at age 5 compared with children born to mothers with greater economic security and less exposure to the pollutants. The findings by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health appear in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology.