Changes over time in frontotemporal activation during a working memory task in patients with schizophrenia

• Published in: Schizophrenia research 2007-03, Vol.91 (1), p.141-150
• Main Authors: Wolf, Robert Christian, Vasic, Nenad, Höse, Annett, Spitzer, Manfred, Walter, Henrik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - etiology; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Frontal Lobe - physiopathology; Frontotemporal function; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Memory Disorders - diagnosis; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Neuropsychological Tests; Parietal Lobe - physiopathology; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - complications; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Severity of Illness Index; Temporal cortex; Temporal Lobe - physiopathology; Time Factors; Verbal Behavior; Working memory
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.12.001

Abstract Studies on working memory (WM) dysfunction in schizophrenia have reported several functionally aberrant brain areas including prefrontal and temporal cortex. Longitudinal studies have shown changes in prefrontal activation during treatment. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a parametric verbal WM task to investigate cerebral function during WM performance in healthy subjects and medicated patients with schizophrenia with an acute symptom exacerbation. Patients were scanned twice: within the first week after admission to the hospital and after 7–8 weeks of a multimodal treatment including atypical antipsychotic agents. There were no differences in activation of lateral prefrontal regions in patients relative to healthy controls neither at baseline nor after 7–8 weeks. Controls showed relatively more activation in parietal, striatal and cerebellar regions. In patients with schizophrenia, frontotemporal function was bilaterally enhanced after 7–8 weeks. This activation change was associated with improved accuracy in a verbal WM task, improved verbal WM-span and symptom reduction as measured by the BPRS global score and the BPRS factor for thought disturbance. Although we could not replicate findings of functional hypofrontality in the patients with schizophrenia, frontotemporal activation changed with treatment and was associated with verbal WM performance and significant reduction of psychopathology.