Cognitive impairment consistent with left fronto-temporal abnormality in schizophernic patients

Abstract

In an effort to explore further the nature of the cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, fourteen patients who met either RDC or DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia and ten control subjects were administered, neuropsychological tests sensitive to specific domains of cognitive functioning. These included measures of general intelligence, attention, verbal and nonverbal episodic memory, semantic memory, word fluency, design fluency and cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting). Patients with schizophrenia, although impaired on the measure of general intelligence, were found to have unimpaired attention. These patients were impaired on all four measures of verbal memory but not on measures of nonverbal memory or semantic memory. The schizophrenic group also showed impairment in word fluency and on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test but not on Design Fluency. Taken together, these findings represent a pattern of cognitive impairment consistent with the presence of left front-temporal abnormality. © 1993 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.