FUNCTIONAL NETWORK DIFFERENCES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - A RCBF STUDY OF SEMANTIC PROCESSING

STUDIES Of regional cerebral blood flow in patients with schizophrenia have led to the idea that dysfunctional neurocircuitry may play a rol e in patients' cognitive deficits. The present PET study was designed to explore this idea by comparing the functional neural networks assoc iated with semantic processing for patients and normal controls throug h structural equation modeling (path analysis). The patients showed si gnificantly different neural interactions among frontal regions, betwe en the frontal and temporal cortices, and between the frontal lobe and anterior cingulate than controls. These discrepancies were especially striking given there were minimal group differences in task performan ce. Results suggest that schizophrenia involves a neural abnormality t hat is evident in functional networks during cognitive performance. (C ) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.