Performance of schizophrenic patients on tests sensitive to left or right frontal, temporal, or parietal function in neurological patients.

The performances of schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects were compared on an extensive battery of psychological tests that have been found at the Montreal Neurological Hospital to be differentially sensitive to atrophic lesions of the left or right frontal, temporal, or parietal cortex. Schizophrenic patients were significantly impaired at all tests that are disrupted by left or right frontal or temporal lobe lesions but performed within normal limits on all tests that are sensitive to parietal lobe damage. These results imply that schizophrenia results, at least in part, from a bilateral dysfunction of the frontal and temporal lobes.