Decreased frontal activation in schizophrenics during stimulation with the continuous performance test--a functional...

The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) has become an essential constituent of the neuropsychological investigation of schizophrenia. Also, a vast number of brain imaging studies, mostly PET investigations, have employed the CPT as a cognitive challenge and established a relative hypofrontality in schizophrenics compared to controls. The aim of the present investigation was to clarify whether this predescribed hypofrontality could also be verified using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 20 healthy volunteers and 14 schizophrenics on stable neuroleptic medication were included. Imaging was performed using the CPT-double-T-version and a clinical 1.5 T MRI-scanner with a single slice technique and a T(2)*-weighted gradient-echo-sequence. The schizophrenics exhibited a decreased activation in the right mesial prefrontal cortex, the right cingulate and the left thalamus compared to controls. These results obtained by fMRI are discussed in relation to published findings using PET.