Abstract

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 30 schizophrenic patients with severe, persistent and stable symptoms using positron emission tomography (PET). Directed and non-directed correlational analysis of the relationship between psychopathology and rCBF was used to identify brain structures implicated in three behavioural subsyndromes of schizophrenia. Psychopathology and neurophysiology (rCBF) exhibited high correlations in the left medial temporal region, mesencephalic, thalamic and left striatal structures. The highest correlation was in the left parahippocampal region. A canonical analysis of the same data highlighted the left parahippocampal region and left striatum (globus pallidus) as sites which linked the behavioural subsyndromes in terms of shared rCBF correlates. Increasing severity of psychopathology was associated with increased rCBF in these regions. Disinhibition of left medial temporal lobe activity mediated by fronto-limbic connections is a possible explanation for these findings; however, the prefrontal component appears to be critically dependent on the behavioural subsyndrome.

Keywords

PsychologyTemporal lobePsychopathologyNeuroscienceCerebral blood flowGlobus pallidusSchizophrenia (object-oriented programming)Positron emission tomographyPsychosisBasal gangliaMedicineCardiologyCentral nervous systemPsychiatryEpilepsy

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
1992
Type
article
Volume
115
Issue
2
Pages
367-382
Citations
262
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

262
OpenAlex

Cite This

Karl Friston, Peter F. Liddle, Chris Frith et al. (1992). THE LEFT MEDIAL TEMPORAL REGION AND SCHIZOPHRENIA: A PET STUDY. Brain , 115 (2) , 367-382. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/115.2.367

Identifiers

DOI
10.1093/brain/115.2.367