IMPAIRED RECRUITMENT OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS DURING CONSCIOUS RECOLLECTIONIN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Poor attention and impaired memory are enduring and core features of s chizophrenia. These impairments have been attributed either to global cortical dysfunction or to perturbations of specific components associ ated with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), hippocampus and cerebellum. Here, we used positron emission tomography (PET) to dissoc iate activations in DLPFC and hippocampus during verbal episodic memor y retrieval. We found reduced hippocampal activation during conscious recollection of studied words, but robust activation of the DLPFC duri ng the effort to retrieve poorly encoded material in schizophrenic pat ients. This finding provides the first evidence of hippocampal dysfunc tion during episodic memory retrieval in schizophrenia.