Psychological, topographic EEG, and CT scan correlates of frontal lobe function in schizophrenia

This study examined frontal lobe function in a group of 20 patients with schizophrenia, on and off medication, compared to 20 normals matched for age, sex, handedness, intelligence, and educational level. Schizophrenic patients generally did not perform as well as normals on the Wisconsin Card Sorti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatry research 1989-08, Vol.29 (2), p.137-149
Main Authors: Williamson, Peter C., Kutcher, Stanley P., Cooper, Perry W., Snow, W.Gary, Szalai, John P., Kaye, Herbert, Morrison, Sandra L., Willinsky, Robert A., Mamelak, Mortimer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Arousal - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
computed tomography
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials
frontal lobe
Frontal Lobe - physiopathology
Humans
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neurocognitive Disorders - physiopathology
Neuropsychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - physiopathology
Schizophrenic Psychology
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
topographic electroencephalogram
Wechsler Scales
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study examined frontal lobe function in a group of 20 patients with schizophrenia, on and off medication, compared to 20 normals matched for age, sex, handedness, intelligence, and educational level. Schizophrenic patients generally did not perform as well as normals on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Patients off medication performed less well on this test than those on medication. Those on medication did not perform as well as those off medication on the design and word fluency tests, which suggested that medications may affect various aspects of frontal lobe function differently. During the WCST, normal subjects demonstrated an increase in beta mean frequency of the electroencephalogram in frontal and centrotemporal regions which was not statistically significant in either schizophrenic group. This shift in beta mean frequency was found to correlate positively with performance on the WCST in normals, but not in patients. Patients with more negative symptoms tended to show a smaller increase in beta mean frequency during the WCST. Performance on the WCST was correlated negatively with ventricle-brain ratio in all subjects, suggesting that frontal lobe function might be related to computed tomographic measures in the normal population as well as in schizophrenic patients. There was no correlation with performance on the WCST and length of illness.
ISSN:0165-1781
1872-7123
DOI:10.1016/0165-1781(89)90028-0