Functional MRI study on neural network dysfunction in schizophrenia and epileptic psychosis

Abstract To elucidate whether there is a common or a different neural substrate deficit between schizophrenia and epileptic psychosis, we have investigated brain activation patterns during various eye movement tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Compared with normal controls, low capacity or inefficiency in frontal function during visually guided saccade task and striate–thalamic hypo-function during anti-saccade task was found both in schizophrenia and epileptic psychosis. Therefore, these findings may not be attributable to disease but to a psychotic state. On the other hand, right hemisphere hypo-function during a smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) task with attention-enhanced procedure was found only in schizophrenia and may be a specific finding in schizophrenia.