Hori Hiroaki, Nagamine Mitsue, Soshi Takahiro, Okabe Shigeo, Kim Yoshiharu, Kunugi Hiroshi
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Neuropsychobiology. 2008;57(1-2):61-9. doi: 10.1159/000129669. Epub 2008 May 2.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Previous functional neuroimaging studies have reported that patients with schizophrenia show reduced prefrontal activation during cognitive tasks whereas patients with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) show preserved or even increased right prefrontal activation, compared to healthy controls; on the other hand, reduced hemispheric laterality is considered to be common to these two disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the possible association between schizotypal traits at a nonclinical level and prefrontal activation patterns during a letter version of the verbal fluency task (VFT).
We examined the relationships of schizotypal traits as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) in a nonclinical female population with prefrontal activation patterns during the VFT, using near-infrared spectroscopy. Twenty-seven healthy participants were divided into high (n = 14) and low (n = 13) SPQ groups by the median split of the total SPQ score.
Compared to the low SPQ group, the high SPQ group showed significantly larger right prefrontal activation during the performance of the VFT, leading to more bilateral activation.
Our results suggest that schizotypal traits at a nonclinical level may be related to relative right prefrontal laterality with overall prefrontal activation being preserved, consistent with previous findings obtained by studies of patients with SPD.
背景/目的：先前的功能神经影像学研究报告称，与健康对照相比，精神分裂症患者在认知任务期间前额叶激活减少，而分裂型人格障碍（SPD）患者右侧前额叶激活保持甚至增加；另一方面，半球偏侧性降低被认为是这两种疾病的共同特征。本研究的目的是在非临床水平上检查分裂型特质与言语流畅性任务（VFT）字母版期间前额叶激活模式之间的可能关联。
我们使用近红外光谱技术，在非临床女性人群中检查了通过分裂型人格问卷（SPQ）测量的分裂型特质与VFT期间前额叶激活模式之间的关系。27名健康参与者根据SPQ总分的中位数分割分为高（n = 14）和低（n = 13）SPQ组。
与低SPQ组相比，高SPQ组在执行VFT期间右侧前额叶激活明显更大，导致更多的双侧激活。
我们的结果表明，非临床水平的分裂型特质可能与相对右侧前额叶偏侧性有关，同时整体前额叶激活得以保留，这与先前对SPD患者的研究结果一致。
