EFFECTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND PREFRONTAL LEUKOTOMY ON MOVEMENT PREPARATION AND GENERATION

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of leukotomiz ed and unleukotomized schizophrenic patients to use advance informatio n in the process of movement preparation. Subjects participated in an aiming task in which movements could be defined on the basis of hand u sed to perform the task, and distance travelled to the target. Subject s were provided with full, partial, or no prior information about the upcoming movement by either precuing hand, distance, both hand and dis tance, or by providing no precue. The leukotomized and unleukotomized schizophrenic patients were able to use this advance information to fa cilitate the speed of their responses in much the same way as did subj ects in a normal control group. These results are discussed in terms o f models of movement preparation, and the role of the frontal lobes in schizophrenia and movement planning.