ABERRANT INTERHEMISPHERIC ALPHA-COHERENCE ON ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY IN SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS DURING ACTIVATION TASKS

Thirty schizophrenic patients (20 medicated, 10 off medication) were c ompared with 30 normal controls subjects matched for age, sex, handedn ess and intelligence. During the performance of a frontal activation t ask, normal subjects showed increased interhemispheric coherence betwe en anterior brain regions. Schizophrenic patients did not show the sam e amount of bilateral anterior activation. During the performance of r ight hemisphere cognitive activation tasks, normal subjects and medica ted schizophrenic patients showed significantly reduced bilateral inte rhemispheric coherence patterns, while the drug-free schizophrenic pat ients showed a trend towards this same pattern. It is suggested that t hese findings provide additional evidence for an aberrant functional o rganization of the brain in schizophrenia.