Atypical hemispheric specialization for language in right-handed schizophrenia patients
Biological Psychiatry. 2005-05-01; 57(9): 1020-1028
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.009
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1. Biol Psychiatry. 2005 May 1;57(9):1020-8.
Atypical hemispheric specialization for language in right-handed schizophrenia
patients.
Dollfus S(1), Razafimandimby A, Delamillieure P, Brazo P, Joliot M, Mazoyer B,
Tzourio-Mazoyer N.
Author information:
(1)Groupe d’Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6194 Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique/Commissariat à l’Engergie
Atomique/Universités de Caen and Paris 5, Centre Cyceron, Caen Cedex, France.
BACKGROUND: The literature suggests that schizophrenia could be related to a
failure in the setting up of left hemisphere dominance for language. We sought to
determine hemispheric specialization for language in schizophrenic patients,
using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
METHODS: Twenty-one right-handed patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia and 21
right-handed control subjects matched by age, gender, and level of education were
recruited. Fractional blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal variations in
anatomic regions of interest were compared between groups. Functional asymmetry
indices (FAIs) were calculated in a region (LANG) resulting from the merging of
activated regions showing a Group x Hemisphere interaction. The FAI difference
between each patient and their matched control subject was computed.
RESULTS: We found lower BOLD signal changes in patients as compared with their
control subjects in a network comprising areas of the left middle temporal gyrus,
the left angular gyrus, and the pars triangularis of the left inferior frontal
gyrus, merged to constitute LANG. The intra-pair differences of FAIs in this area
showed that 76% of the patients exhibited less leftward functional asymmetry than
their matched control subjects, including six patients with a rightward
asymmetry.
CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated the existence of an anomaly in left
hemisphere specialization for language in schizophrenic subjects.
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.009
PMID: 15860343 [Indexed for MEDLINE]