Exploring the social drain in schizophrenia: Left prefrontal underactivation during mental state attribution

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring the social drain in schizophrenia: Left prefrontal underactivation during mental state attribution

AU - Russell, T A

AU - Rubia, K

AU - Bullmore, E T

AU - Soni, W

AU - Suckling, J

AU - Brammer, M J

AU - Simmons, A

AU - Williams, S C R

AU - Sharma, T

PY - 2000

Y1 - 2000

N2 - Objective: Evidence suggests that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in "theory of mind," i.e., interpretation of the mental state of others. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia have a dysfunction in brain regions responsible for mental state attribution. Method: Mean brain activation in five male patients with schizophrenia was compared to that in seven comparison subjects during performance of a task involving attribution of mental state. Results: During performance of the mental state attribution task, the patients made more errors and showed less blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Conclusions: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first functional MRI study to show a deficit in the left prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia during a socioemotional task.

AB - Objective: Evidence suggests that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in "theory of mind," i.e., interpretation of the mental state of others. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia have a dysfunction in brain regions responsible for mental state attribution. Method: Mean brain activation in five male patients with schizophrenia was compared to that in seven comparison subjects during performance of a task involving attribution of mental state. Results: During performance of the mental state attribution task, the patients made more errors and showed less blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Conclusions: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first functional MRI study to show a deficit in the left prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia during a socioemotional task.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0033663497&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.12.2040

DO - 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.12.2040

M3 - Article

SN - 1535-7228

VL - 157

SP - 2040

EP - 2042

JO - The American Journal of Psychiatry

JF - The American Journal of Psychiatry

IS - 12

ER -