Nestor P G, Shenton M E, McCarley R W, Haimson J, Smith R S, O'Donnell B, Kimble M, Kikinis R, Jolesz F A
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Am J Psychiatry. 1993 Dec;150(12):1849-55. doi: 10.1176/ajp.150.12.1849.
The authors evaluated the neuropsychological correlates of temporal lobe abnormalities in schizophrenic patients.
Fifteen schizophrenic patients underwent assessment of memory, by the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised, and abstraction/categorization, by the similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Neuropsychological tests of motor and constructional functions were used as control tasks. The patients also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in which new neuroimaging techniques were used to derive measurements of volume and three-dimensional surface renderings of temporal lobe structures.
Spearman rank-order correlations indicated significant associations between poor scores on tests of verbal memory, abstraction, and categorization and reduced volume in temporal lobe structures, including the parahippocampal gyrus and posterior superior temporal gyrus (left and right). By contrast, performance on tests of visual memory and on control tasks was not correlated with MRI temporal lobe abnormalities.
These findings suggest a significant but modest relation between reduced volume in specific temporal lobe regions and neuropsychological deficits in abstraction, categorization, and verbal memory, all of which may reflect a dysfunctional semantic system in schizophrenia.
作者评估了精神分裂症患者颞叶异常的神经心理学相关性。
15名精神分裂症患者接受了韦氏记忆量表修订版的记忆评估，以及韦氏成人智力量表修订版的相似性分测验和威斯康星卡片分类测验的抽象/分类评估。运动和结构功能的神经心理学测试用作对照任务。患者还接受了磁共振成像（MRI）研究，其中使用新的神经成像技术来测量颞叶结构的体积和三维表面渲染。
斯皮尔曼等级相关表明，言语记忆、抽象和分类测试得分较低与颞叶结构体积减小之间存在显著关联，这些颞叶结构包括海马旁回和颞上回后部（左右两侧）。相比之下，视觉记忆测试和对照任务的表现与MRI颞叶异常无关。
这些发现表明，特定颞叶区域体积减小与抽象、分类和言语记忆方面的神经心理学缺陷之间存在显著但适度的关系，所有这些可能反映了精神分裂症中语义系统的功能障碍。
