Deficit in schizophrenia to recruit the striatum in implicit learning: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation

• Published in: Schizophrenia research Vol. 87; no. 1; pp. 127 - 137
• Main Authors: Reiss, Jeffrey P., Campbell, Darren W., Leslie, William D., Paulus, Martin P., Ryner, Lawrence N., Polimeni, Joseph O., Foot, Brendon J., Sareen, Jitender
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.2006; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Caudate; Caudate Nucleus - blood supply; Caudate Nucleus - physiopathology; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; Corpus Striatum - blood supply; Corpus Striatum - physiopathology; Female; fMRI; Frontal Lobe - blood supply; Frontal Lobe - metabolism; Gyrus Cinguli - blood supply; Humans; Implicit learning; Learning - physiology; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Oxygen - blood; Procedural learning; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Severity of Illness Index; Striatum; Temporal Lobe - blood supply; Temporal Lobe - metabolism; Schizophrenia; Striatum; fMRI; Caudate; Implicit learning; Procedural learning; Human; Central nervous system; Basal ganglion; Cognition; Corpus striatum; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Encephalon; Psychosis; Caudate nucleus; Acquisition process; Medical imagery; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.04.027

In schizophrenia, explicit learning deficits have been well established although it is less clear whether these patients have deficits in implicit learning (IL). IL is thought to depend on intact striatal functioning. This study examined the hypothesis that schizophrenia patients show deficient recruitment of striatal activation during an IL paradigm, relative to performance-matched healthy comparison subjects. Ten subjects with schizophrenia on atypical antipsychotic medication and 10 age, gender, education, and performance matched healthy comparison subjects underwent fMRI while performing an IL task. On the basis of whole-brain and striatal region-of-interest analyses, we found a relative lack of striatal activation in schizophrenia patients. This result is consistent with convergent evidence of striatal dysfunction in schizophrenia.