title: Reduced prefrontal activation during Tower of London in first-episode schizophrenia: a multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy study.
abstract: Cognitive impairments are considered as a core feature of schizophrenia and have been reported in associated with dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The Tower of London (TOL) task is a widely used neuropsychological test to assess the planning ability and the PFC function. In the present study, we examined functional changes in the PFC of 40 first-episode schizophrenia patients and 40 age- and gender-matched healthy controls by means of multi-channel Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during performance of the TOL task. NIRS is a noninvasive optical method that can measure relative changes in oxygenated ([oxy-Hb]) and deoxygenated ([deoxy-Hb]) hemoglobin in cortical tissue. Compared to the healthy controls, schizophrenia patients exhibited a significant decreased activation in the left PFC and poorer TOL performance. The results confirm the functional deficits of the PFC and impaired planning ability in first-episode schizophrenia patients and suggest that NIRS may be a useful clinical tool for evaluating PFC activation in psychiatric disorders.
authors.affiliation: LIAMA Center for Computational Medicine, National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Huiling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Hanbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Gaohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhongchun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen