Volume 93, Number 18; Pages: 9985-9990

Schizophrenia and cognitive dysmetria: A positron-emission tomography study of dysfunctional prefrontal-thalamic-cerebellar circuitry

 

Nancy C. Andreasen, Daniel S. O'Leary, Ted Cizadlo, Stephan Arndt, Karim

Rezai, Laura L. Boles Ponto, G. Leonard Watkins, Richard D. Hichwa

 

(c) 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences

 

ABSTRACT Patients suffering from schizophrenia display subtle cognitive

abnormalities that may reflect a difficulty in rapidly coordinating the

steps that occur in a variety of mental activities. Working interactively

with the prefrontal cortex, the cerebellum may play a role in coordinating

both motor and cognitive performance. This positron-emission tomography

study suggests the presence of a prefrontal-thalamic-cerebellar network

that is activated when normal subjects recall complex narrative material,

but is dysfunctional in schizophrenic patients when they perform the same

task. These results support a role for the cerebellum in cognitive

functions and suggest that patients with schizophrenia may suffer from a

"cognitive dysmetria" due to dysfunctional prefrontal-thalamic-cerebellar

circuitry.

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