Association between cognitive insight and prefrontal function during a cognitive task in schizophrenia: a multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Insight has been studied mostly from a clinical perspective. Recently, the focus of this research field shifted to cognitive insight or the ability to monitor and correct the erroneous convictions of individuals. In this study, we investigated the relationship between cognitive insight and prefrontal function during a cognitive task in 30 patients with clinically stable schizophrenia and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We measured the changes in hemoglobin concentration in the prefrontal and temporal cortical regions during a verbal fluency task (VFT) by using 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Cognitive insight was measured using the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS). Regional hemodynamic changes were significantly smaller in the schizophrenia group than in the control group in prefrontal and temporal regions, and significant positive relationship was observed between the score of the BCIS self-reflectiveness subscale and right ventrolateral prefrontal and right temporal functions during the VFT. These results suggest that the right ventrolateral prefrontal and temporal cortical regions are associated with cognitive insight in clinically stable patients with schizophrenia and that NIRS is an efficient medical tool for monitoring these characteristics.