Although not directly supporting the first two hypotheses; the results are, in general, consistent with there being different cortical-subcortical circuits associated with each of psychomotor poverty and disorganisation. Temporal lobe functioning appears to have particular significance for the reality distortion syndrome.

No abstract

SYNOPSISSchizophrenic subjects performed significantly worse on neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function but not on tests of non-frontal lobe function when compared to a matched group of normal subjects. Correlations expected between frontal lobe neuropsychological test performance and negative symptoms were not found.

Disruption of frontal-temporal connectivity appears to have a specific relationship to reality distortion symptoms in schizophrenia.

Thirty schizophrenic patients (20 medicated, 10 off medication) were compared with 30 normal control subjects matched for age, sex, handedness, and intelligence. During the performance of left-hemisphere cognitive activation tasks, normal subjects had significantly increased EEG alpha coherence in areas related to left focal frontal sites, with decreases in temporal and posterior areas. Schizophrenic patients did not show the same degree of focal activation of left frontal areas. During the performance of right-hemisphere cognitive activation tasks, normal subjects and schizophrenic patients had similar patterns of right posterior increases in alpha coherence. Discriminant analyses were able to classify 81.4% of all subjects correctly. It is suggested that the findings indicate an aberrant functional organisation of the brain in schizophrenia, particularly affecting the left hemisphere.