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Stability of functional language lateralization over time in schizophrenia patients
Annick Razafimandimby1, Olivier Maïza, Pierre-Yves Hervé
1Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, UMR 6194 CNRS/CEA/Universités de Caen et Paris 5, GIP Cyceron, Bld Henri Becquerel, 14074 Caen Cedex, France.
Schizophrenia Research
|June 16, 2007
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show reduced leftward language lateralization, which remains stable over time. This brain organization difference in language processing is not affected by symptom severity or task performance.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Cross-sectional studies indicate reduced leftward language lateralization in schizophrenia patients.
- The temporal stability of this reduced lateralization in schizophrenia remains largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the longitudinal stability of reduced leftward language lateralization in schizophrenia.
- To determine if functional asymmetry in language regions changes over time in schizophrenia patients.
- To examine the relationship between language lateralization stability, symptom severity, and task performance.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study with 10 right-handed schizophrenia patients and 10 matched controls.
- Two fMRI sessions conducted 21 months apart using a story listening task.
- Analysis of asymmetry indices in the semantic language region (LANG) using ANOVA and correlation.
Main Results:
- Significantly reduced asymmetry indices in the LANG region were observed in patients compared to controls.
- Asymmetry indices strongly correlated between the two fMRI sessions, indicating stability over time.
- No significant correlations were found between asymmetry indices and psychotic symptom severity or task performance.
Conclusions:
- The reduced leftward language lateralization in schizophrenia is a stable characteristic, not varying over the illness course.
- This stable pattern of brain organization for language is independent of psychosis severity and cognitive performance.
- Findings support the hypothesis of a distinct, stable language network organization in schizophrenia.
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