Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for disrupted basal ganglia function in schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
This study was an examination of basal ganglia dysfunction in schizophrenia using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).


METHODS
The authors used a motor sequencing task to investigate activation of the caudate, anterior putamen plus globus pallidus, and posterior putamen plus globus pallidus in eight subjects with schizophrenia and 12 group-matched comparison subjects. Differences in activation of the thalamus, the target of direct output from the globus pallidus, were also examined.


RESULTS
The schizophrenia subjects showed significant bilateral deficits in the posterior putamen, globus pallidus, and thalamus but not the anterior putamen plus globus pallidus or caudate. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that the deficits in thalamic activation were related to deficits in posterior putamen and globus pallidus activation.


CONCLUSIONS
These results provide fMRI evidence for basal ganglia dysfunction in subjects with schizophrenia and suggest that this deficit results in disrupted outflow to the thalamus. These deficits may underlie the behavioral impairments in goal-directed action observed in schizophrenia.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5719, USA. menon@stanford.edu
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Menon
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Anagnoson
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Glover
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Pfefferbaum
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000503:physiopathology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D005917:Globus Pallidus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011699:Putamen / Q000503:physiopathology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000503:physiopathology