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Functional MRI of visuospatial working memory in schizotypal personality disorder: a region-of-interest analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2005

HAROLD W. KOENIGSBERG
Affiliation:
Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
MONTE S. BUCHSBAUM
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
BRADLEY R. BUCHSBAUM
Affiliation:
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
JASON S. SCHNEIDERMAN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
CHEUK Y. TANG
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA Department of Radiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
ANTONIA NEW
Affiliation:
Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
MARIANNE GOODMAN
Affiliation:
Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
LARRY J. SIEVER
Affiliation:
Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

Abstract

Background. Functional MRI studies have begun to identify neural networks implicated in visuospatial working memory in healthy volunteers and patients with schizophrenia. The study of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) provides regional analysis in unmedicated patients in the schizophrenia spectrum.

Method. Unmedicated patients with SPD by DSM-IV criteria and normal controls were assessed with fMRI while performing a visuospatial working-memory task. It required the subjects to retain the location of three dots located on the circumference of an imaginary circle and then respond to a query display in which one dot was presented and the subject required to press a button to indicate whether the probe dot location was previously displayed. Subject groups did not differ significantly in spatial memory scores. The exact Talairach and Tournoux coordinates of brain areas previously reported to show activation with spatial memory tasks were assessed.

Results. The majority of these locations showed BOLD response activation significantly less in patients during the memory retention period, including the left ventral prefrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, intraparietal cortex and posterior inferior gyrus. Regions in the right middle prefrontal and prestriate cortex showed greater activation at a trend level for patients with SPD than for normal controls. In addition, we replicated the findings of increased activation with the task in healthy volunteers in the premotor areas, ventral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex.

Conclusions. SPD patients show decreased activation compared to healthy volunteers in key frontal regions and we also provided a partial replication of findings reported in healthy subjects.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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