정신분열병 환자에서 얼굴 영상의 작동기억 장애 : 기능자기공명영상연구 = Working Memory Deficits of Facial Images in Patients with Schizophrenia : fMRI Investigation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objectives : Impaired processing of facial information is one of the broad ranges of cognitive deficits seen in patients with Schi-zophrenia. We aimed to elucidate the differences in brain activities involved in the process of facial working memory between schizophrenic patients and healthy comparison subjects.
Methods : Twelve patients with schizophrenia were recruited along with twelve demographically matched healthy volunteers as a comparison group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess cortical activities during the Perfor-mance of a 2-back working memory paradigm using images of neutral faces as mnemonic content.
Rcsults : The patient group performed the tasks with reduced accuracy. Group analysis revealed that the left fusiform gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus, the bilateral middle frontal gyri/insula, the left middle temporal gyrus, the precuneus, the quadrangular lobules and the vermis of cerebellum showed decreased cortical activities in the patient group. On the other hand, an increased level of activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex and the pahetal lobule was observed from the patient group, all in the right hemisphere.
Conulusion : A decreased level of activity in the left fusiform gyrus among the patient group implicates inefficient processing of facial information. An increased level of activation in prefrontal and parietal neural networks from the patient group confirms earlier findings on the impaired working memory of patients with schizophrenia.