title: Exploring the social brain in schizophrenia: left prefrontal underactivation during mental state attribution.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, UK. t.sharma@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rubia
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Bullmore
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Soni
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suckling
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brammer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sharma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012938:Social Perception