Abstracts of the 4th Biennial Schizophrenia International Research Conference / Schizophrenia Research 153, Supplement 1 (2014) S1–S384 S121 Poster #S90 RELATIONSHIP OF KREMEN1 GENE VARIATION WITH SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONINGIN SCHIZOPHRENIA Banu De ˘ girmencio ˘ glu 1,2 , Dua Özsoylu 3 ,Güne ¸ s Can 4 , Çi ˘ gdem Eresen Yazıcıo ˘ glu 5 , Berna Binnur Akdede 6 ,Köksal Alptekin 7 1 Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience; 2 Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry; 3 Medical Biology and Genetics; 4 Department of Psychiatry, Dokuz Eylul University; 5 Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Biology; 6 Dokuz Eylul University; 7 Psychiatry Department at Medical School of Dokuz Eylul University Background: Schizophrenia leads to functional and behavioral abnormali- ties, like cognitive impairments including poor social, language and motor skills. Schizophrenia is also known to be a neurodevelopmental disorder, in- cluding development of abnormal brain structures and abnormal neuronal organizations. Alterations in the Wnt signaling pathway are thought to play a critical role in regulating these neurodevelopmental changes. Hence, genetic associations of several Wnt pathway genes and schizophrenia have been found. A transmembrane protein KREMEN1 is also found to modulate Wnt signaling. This study is the first study to examine whether “rs713526” (G>A) variation on KREMEN1 gene can affect the symptomatologic and cognitive functioning in schizophrenia. Methods: Our sample is comprised of 101 patients with schizophrenia. Genetic variation (rs713526) on KREMEN1 gene is genotyped through DNA sequence analysis. All patients were assessed with Positive and Nega- tive Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and on a neurocognitive battery including attention, memory, executive functioning and language skills. Results: As a result of genetic analysis, 25 patients were with variation of Heterozygous GA genotype, 76 patients were with no variation of Homozy- gous GG genotype and there were no patients observed with Homozygous AA genotype. An independent t-test was conducted to compare the pa- tients’ symptoms and cognitive test scores with and without variation on KREMEN1 gene. The patients with homozygous GG genotype had higher scores (M=32.06, SE=1.37) than the patients with heterozygous GA geno- type (M=26.33, SE=1.90) on verbal fluency test (p=0.02). Also, the patients with homozygous GG genotype had higher scores (M=18.65, SE=0.74) than the patients with heterozygous GA genotype (M=15.76, SE=1.21) on cate- gory fluency test (p=0.04). A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the two populations. Results of the analysis indicated that the patients with heterozygous GA genotype had higher scores (Mdn= 3.05) than the patients with homozygous GG genotype (Mdn=2.35) on the G7 item (motor retardation) on PANSS (U=554.00, z=-2.82, p<0.01, r=0.30). Also analysis showed that the patients with homozygous GG genotype did less errors (Mdn=0.00) than the patients with heterozygous GA genotype (Mdn=2.00) on the interference task of the Stroop test (U=607.50, z=2.39, p<0.05, r=0.30). Discussion: Results suggest that a variant (rs713526) on KREMEN1 gene in schizophrenia might modulate reduction of motor activity in symptomatol- ogy and in this respect this motor retardation might affect verbal fluency and interference effect in cognitive functioning. Although verbal fluency is seen as an indicator of executive functioning, effortful self-initiation is also appears to be a component of verbal fluency. Brain studies of fluency tasks showed that brain regions including initiation and activation (supplementary motor area) are also implicated in fluency performance. Additionally, errors on stroop interference task is thought to be related with indifference and slowing. Consequently, KREMEN1 gene variation seems to be a contributor of motor retardation and this motor retardation seems to lessen speech, diminish self-initiation and leads to indifference and slowing in schizophrenia. It might be more informative to replicate these results with a larger sample of schizoprenia patients. Poster #S91 ECOLOGICALLY-VALID ASSESSMENT OF ATTENTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA INAVIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT George Foussias 1 , Ishraq Siddiqui 2 , Krysta McDonald 2 , Eliyas Jeffay 3 , John Zawadzki 2 , Albert Wong 2 , Ofer Agid 1 , Konstantine Zakzanis 3 , Gary Remington 1 1 University of Toronto; 2 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; 3 University of Toronto Scarborough Background: Among the cognitive impairments that characterize schizophrenia, attentional deficits have been identified as a reliable and enduring feature of the illness. Such attentional deficits have been related to functional outcomes in schizophrenia, and identified as one important focus for neurobiological and treatment research. Assessments of attention to date, however, rely on abstract paradigms with limited direct relevance to everyday life. In recognition of this, we sought to evaluate a novel ecologically-valid strategy for evaluating attention deficits in schizophrenia. To this end, we used a virtual reality (VR) environment resembling a factory setting, whereby participants function as quality inspectors and identify defective or incorrect objects on conveyor belts. Within this environment, different task parameters enable the examination of selective attention (SA), divided attention (DA), and alternating attention (AA). Methods: Stable outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ) and healthy controls (HC), between the ages of 18 and 55, were recruited. Participants underwent clinical assessments for positive and negative symptom severity using the Scales for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and Negative Symptoms, motivational deficits with the Apathy Evaluation Scale, and depression with the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia. Cognitive function was as- sessed with the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), and the Trail Making Test (TMT) A & B. Community functioning was evaluated using the Quality of Life Scale (QLS). Neurologic side effects from med- ications, and video game experience were also evaluated. Subsequently, participants were administered the VR conveyor belt tasks. Results: We recruited a total of 68 participants (37 SZ and 31 HC) for this study. Examination of VR attention task performance revealed significant deficits in SZ participants in DA and AA tasks compared to HC participants (z=-4.28, p<0.001, and z=-4.82, p<0.001, respectively), although with no difference in the SA task. Moreover, DA and AA task performance was significantly correlated with global cognitive performance (BACS: rho = 0.583, p<0.001; and rho = 0.635, p<0.001, respectively), as well as with TMT performance (TMT A: rho =-0.521, p<0.001, and rho =-0.482, p<0.001, respectively; TMT B: rho =-0.486, p<0.001, and rho =-0.523, p<0.001, respectively). Further, DA and AA task performance was signifi- cantly correlated with community functioning (QLS: rho = 0.386, p=0.001, and rho = 0.505, p<0.001, respectively). Importantly, these relationships remained significant after controlling for motivational deficits and video game experience. Discussion: In an effort to improve the ecological validity of tests of atten- tion in schizophrenia, we utilized a novel strategy for evaluating attention in a series of VR conveyor belt tasks. We found performance in these VR tasks to be related to standard tests of cognitive ability and specifically attention. However, variance in performance was not entirely captured by standard paper-and-pencil measures, suggesting that the VR tasks measure attentional performance beyond what is capable in standard tests. Further, the relationship between VR task performance and community functioning offers some support for the predictive validity of this approach. Finally, in- dividuals with schizophrenia exhibited specific impairments in divided and alternating attention compared to healthy controls. Overall, these findings offer support for the use of this novel assessment strategy for attentional deficits in schizophrenia, which may enable the neurobiological evaluation of attentional processes under conditions resembling daily life. Poster #S92 LIMITED LITERACY AMONG PEOPLE WITH SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE US AND AUSTRALIA: A NATURAL EXPERIMENT? Cherrie Galletly 1,2 , Alisa Lincoln 3 , Cassandra Burton 4 , Tammi Arford 3 , Christopher Prener 3 , Dennis Liu 5 1 University of Adelaide, South Australia; 2 Ramsay Health Care (SA) Mental Health; 3 NorthEastern University, Boston, MA; 4 Ramsay Heathcare (SA) Mental Health Services; 5 Northern Mental Health Service, NALHN Background: While there is a growing body of literature focused on literacy and a number of health outcomes, little work has been done to understand the ways in which people’s literacy is related to their psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses, mental health service utilization, quality of life, and partici- pation in the community. In the US, the few studies which have examined