Cognition and schizophrenia: latest findings from neuroscience

Problems with cognition are one of the hallmarks of schizophrenia and there is no established treatment for them. People with schizophrenia have problems with perception, attention, memory, language and intellect. Impaired decision-making is one of the main problems and this has been linked to impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex. Researchers from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine reviewed 41 brain-imaging studies measuring the activity in the brains of people with schizophrenia as they undertook a number of decision-making tasks. They found that both people with schizophrenia and unaffected controls used the same network of brain cells while undertaking decision-making tasks. They also found that the participants with schizophrenia had deficits in their dorsolateral frontal cortex, their anterior cingulate cortex and in the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus. There were increases in activity in other parts of the prefrontal cortex, possibly to make up for deficits elsewhere.

Minzenberg, Michael J. ... [et al] - Meta-analysis of 41 functional neuroimaging studies of executive function in schizophrenia Archives of General Psychiatry August 2009, 66(8), 811-822