Abnormal brain response of chronic schizophrenia patients despite normal performance during a visual vigilance task

Deficits of attention are common among individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and are related both to genetic liability to the disorder and to functional outcome among patients. To explore the brain systems underlying these attentional abnormalities, we compared the response of nine patients with chronic SZ or schizoaffective disorder to that of 10 matched healthy individuals performing a simple visual vigilance task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The two groups performed equivalently on the task. When the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal during identification of a target letter among similar-looking letters was compared to the response during fixation trials, both groups showed multiple clusters of significant brain response in widespread cortical regions. Compared with healthy participants, SZ patients showed a diminished response in the inferior frontal cortex and an abnormally enhanced response in right postcentral gyrus, right medial temporal lobe and left cerebellum. The results suggest that abnormalities of functional brain response to attentional tasks can be observed among patients with SZ even when behavioral performance is unimpaired, and provide further evidence that brain systems related to attention are likely to be involved in the pathophysiology of the disorder.