FRONTAL BRAIN VOLUME AND CONTEXT EFFECTS IN SHORT-TERM RECALL IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

In a group of schizophrenic patients, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of relative frontal brain volume (total frontal volume/total cerebral volume) correlated highly with the capacity to use context a s an aid to recall in a verbal memory task. The dorsolateral area of t he prefrontal cortex appears to have contributed most to this effect. Recall of simple word lists without contextual features revealed no co rrelation with relative frontal volume. With increasing contextual org anization of the material, correlations between frontal volume and rec all scores increased significantly. These findings are consistent with the general proposition that impairment in the use of informational r edundancy is a significant component of schizophrenic pathology.