Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 55, Issue 2, 15 January 2004, Pages 154-164
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Near-infrared spectroscopy analysis of frontal lobe dysfunction in schizophrenia

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3223(03)00547-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Background

Previous studies have shown that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has high temporal resolution, requires little restraint, and is suitable for examining the effect of psychological tasks on brain circulation. In the present study, frontal function in schizophrenic patients was analyzed by NIRS during random number generation (RNG), ruler-catching (RC), and sequential finger-to-thumb (SFT) tasks.

Methods

Two sets of NIRS probes were attached to the foreheads of 13 schizophrenic patients and 10 control subjects approximately at Fp1–F7 and Fp2–F8. Near-infrared spectroscopy was conducted at a sampling rate of 1 Hz, with the pathlength being determined by time-resolved spectroscopy with differential pathlength factor measurements. The absolute changes in oxygenated (oxy-Hb) and deoxygenated (deoxy-Hb) hemoglobin concentrations in response to each task were measured, and total hemoglobin (total-Hb) concentration was calculated as the sum of the two.

Results

During RNG task, total- and oxy-Hb concentrations increased, and deoxy-Hb decreased, but the responses were significantly smaller in schizophrenic patients. During RC task, oxy-Hb in schizophrenic patients tended to decrease, in contrast to the mostly increasing response in control subjects. No group difference was observed during SFT task.

Conclusions

Task-dependent profile of functional abnormalities was observed in schizophrenic frontal brain metabolism. These results support the usefulness of NIRS data in investigating frontal lobe dysfunction and evaluating psychopathologic condition in schizophrenic patients.

Section snippets

Subjects

The demographic characteristics of the subjects are summarized in Table 1. They were all right-handed and comprised 13 schizophrenic patients diagnosed according to DSM-IV (age, 36.9 ± 12.3 years, mean ± SD; 10 male, 3 female), and 10 control subjects (age, 40.7 ± 9.8 years; 8 male, 2 female). Control subjects had no history of psychiatric or neurologic disorders. There was no difference between schizophrenic and control groups with respect to age (Z = .93, ns) or gender (χ2= .03, ns).

Task performance

Task performance of the subjects in each paradigm is presented in Table 1. For all the paradigms, the performance scores in the schizophrenic group were significantly different from those in the control. In the RNG task, the order of the digits was less random in the patient group both in the oral and written response modes. The schizophrenic patients also showed longer reaction times in the RC task and were less skillful in conducting the SFT task.

RNG task

Figure 1 presents examples of the recording

Pathlength measurement in NIRS

Some previous studies in which NIRS was used measured only absorbance of the light, and the units of the data were arbitrary. This lack of comparability hindered the evaluation of obtained data in some cases. In other studies, the pathlength was set as a constant, although it changes depending on the subjects.

According to the Beer-Lambert law, it is necessary to know the pathlength to obtain the concentration value in the brain. In the present study, the pathlength between emission and

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Ken-ichi Yamamoto and Dr. Keisuke Ebata for invaluable support and helpful suggestions on this study.

References (62)

  • T. Isotani et al.

    Source localization of EEG activity during hypnotically induced anxiety and relaxation

    Int J Psychophysiol

    (2001)
  • M. Jahanshahi et al.

    The role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in random number generationA study with positron emission tomography

    Neuroimage

    (2000)
  • K.A. Kiehl et al.

    An event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study of an auditory oddball task in schizophrenia

    Schizophr Res

    (2001)
  • M. Lepage et al.

    Frontal cortex and the programming of repetitive tapping movements in manLesion effects and functional neuroimaging

    Brain Res Cogn Brain Res

    (1999)
  • T.C. Manschreck et al.

    Impaired verbal memory is associated with impaired motor performance in schizophreniaRelationship to brain structure

    Schizophr Res

    (2000)
  • V. Menon et al.

    Functional neuroanatomy of auditory working memory in schizophreniaRelation to positive and negative symptoms

    Neuroimage

    (2001)
  • A. Miyake et al.

    The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “Frontal Lobe” tasksA latent variable analysis

    Cognit Psychol

    (2000)
  • S. Nohara et al.

    Neural correlates of memory organization deficits in schizophrenia. A single photon emission computed tomography study with 99 mTc-ethyl-cysteinate dimer during a verbal learning task

    Schizophr Res

    (2000)
  • T. Ohnuma et al.

    Expression of the human excitatory amino acid transporter 2 and metabotropic glutamate receptors 3 and 5 in the prefrontal cortex from normal individuals and patients with schizophrenia

    Brain Res Mol Brain Res

    (1998)
  • A. Raine et al.

    An evaluation of structural and functional prefrontal deficits in schizophreniaMRI and neuropsychological measures

    Psychiatry Res

    (1992)
  • T.C. Rickard et al.

    The calculating brainAn fMRI study

    Neuropsychologia

    (2000)
  • G. Strangman et al.

    Non-invasive neuroimaging using near-infrared light

    Biol Psychiatry

    (2002)
  • F. Viallet et al.

    Bilateral and side-related reaction time impairments in patients with unilateral cerebral lesions of a medial frontal region involving the supplementary motor area

    Neuropsychologia

    (1995)
  • M. Wolf et al.

    Different time evolution of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentration changes in the visual and motor cortices during functional stimulationA near-infrared spectroscopystudy

    Neuroimage

    (2002)

  • Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia

    Am J Psychiatry

    (1997)
  • E. Artiges et al.

    Working memory control in patients with schizophreniaA PET study during a random number generation task

    Am J Psychiatry

    (2000)
  • P. Brugger

    Variables that influence the generation of random sequencesAn update

    Percept Mot Skills

    (1997)
  • P. Brugger et al.

    Repetitive behavior and repetition avoidanceThe role of the right hemisphere

    J Psychiatry Neurosci

    (1996)
  • M.S. Buchsbaum et al.

    Positron emission tomographic image measurement in schizophrenia and affective disorders

    Ann Neurol

    (1984)
  • J.M. Crook et al.

    Low muscarinic receptor binding in prefrontal cortex from subjects with schizophreniaA study of Brodmann's areas 8, 9, 10, and 46 and the effects of neuroleptic drug treatment

    Am J Psychiatry

    (2001)
  • V.A. Curtis et al.

    Attenuated frontal activation during a verbal fluency task in patients with schizophrenia

    Am J Psychiatry

    (1998)

    • Cited by (0)

    View full text
    Copyright © 2004 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.