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Relation of prefrontal cortex dysfunction to working memory and symptoms in schizophrenia
W M Perlstein1, C S Carter, D C Noll
1Department of Clinical and Health Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville 32610, USA. wmp@grove.ufl.edu
The American Journal of Psychiatry
|June 30, 2001
Summary
Patients with schizophrenia exhibit dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction, impacting working memory. This dysfunction correlates with poorer performance and cognitive disorganization, but not other symptom types.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is crucial for working memory and implicated in schizophrenia pathophysiology.
- Establishing a direct link between dlPFC activity, working memory deficits, and schizophrenia symptoms is challenging due to generalized cognitive impairments and task complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between dlPFC activity, working memory load, and symptom presentation in schizophrenia.
- To test if dlPFC dysfunction in schizophrenia is specific to performance differences and associated with particular symptom clusters.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activity.
- Seventeen patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy controls performed a parametric n-back working memory task.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients showed reduced right dlPFC activation (Brodmann's area 46/9) under conditions where performance differed from controls.
- Greater dlPFC dysfunction correlated with poorer working memory task performance.
- dlPFC dysfunction was selectively linked to cognitive disorganization symptoms.
Conclusions:
- Working memory deficits in schizophrenia are likely due to dlPFC disturbances.
- These dlPFC disturbances are specifically associated with cognitive disorganization.
- The findings suggest dlPFC dysfunction affects associative working memory components rather than stimulus representation maintenance.