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Related Experiment Videos

Prefrontal function in schizophrenia: confounds and controversies

D R Weinberger1, K F Berman

  • 1Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Neuroscience Center, St. Elizabeths, Washington, D.C. 20032, USA.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|October 29, 1996
PubMed
Summary

Schizophrenia is linked to frontal lobe dysfunction, not just poor performance. Functional neuroimaging reveals distinct prefrontal activity patterns in patients, suggesting underlying pathophysiology.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Clinical data suggest frontal cortex dysfunction in schizophrenia, manifesting as negative symptoms and cognitive deficits.
  • Neuroimaging studies provide evidence for frontal, particularly prefrontal, malfunction, but findings are inconsistent.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether prefrontal hypofunction in schizophrenia is a core pathophysiological feature or an artifact of imaging methods.
  • To clarify the role of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in schizophrenia's cognitive deficits.

Main Methods:

  • Review and analysis of functional neuroimaging studies in schizophrenia patients.
  • Comparison of patient and control groups matched for performance levels during cognitive tasks (e.g., working memory).

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  • Examination of studies using resting-state and cognitive activation paradigms.

    • Main Results:

    • Cognitive activation tasks reliably show prefrontal hypofunction in schizophrenia patients.
    • Studies matching patients and controls for poor performance reveal quantitative and qualitative differences in prefrontal activity.
    • Approaches matching for normal performance may obscure disease-specific neural deficits.

    Conclusions:

    • Functional neuroimaging data suggest prefrontal cognitive deficits in schizophrenia stem from underlying pathophysiology.
    • Prefrontal hypofunction appears to be a characteristic of schizophrenia, not merely a consequence of poor task performance.