title: The relationship between regional cerebral blood flow and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in negative schizophrenia.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and problem-solving thinking in negative schizophrenia. Twenty-one negative schizophrenic patients and 12 normal controls were studied with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Measures of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were taken both at rest and during a prefrontal activation task using Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Compared with controls, poor performances on the WCST of total trials category (TT), perseverative errors (PE) and non-perseverative errors (NE) were found in negative schizophrenic (P < 0.05). During WCST activation, patients showed interhemispheric differences in the prefrontal region, but under rest conditions, no such differences manifested. The negative schizophrenia group had a significantly lower rCBF change rate in profrontal lobe during stimulant WCST than those in normal controls (P < 0.05). The negative schizophrenic patient has executive function deficits and lower rCBF perfusion in left profrontal lobes, which suggest that the negative schizophrenic patient has dysfunction of the left profrontal region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Second Affiliated Hospital, Hunan Medical University, Changsha, The People's Republic of China. Zheningl@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Zhening
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wai-Cheong Carl
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Tam
authors.forename: Yaning
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Jingping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon