Selective impairment of attentional networks of orienting and executive control in schizophrenia

Wang, Kai; Fan, Jin; Dong, Yi; Wang, Chang-qing; Lee, Tatia M.C.; Posner, Michael I.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2005.01.019

« Previous Next »Schizophrenia Research
Volume 78, Issue 2 , Pages 235-241, 15 October 2005

Selective impairment of attentional networks of orienting and executive control in schizophrenia

Kai Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, PR China
Jin Fan
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 212 241 7134; fax: +1 212 996 8931.
Yi Dong
- Hefei Psychiatry Hospital, Hefei, Anhui Province, PR China
Chang-qing Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, PR China
Tatia M.C. Lee
- Institute of Clinical Neuropsychology and Neuropsychology Laboratory, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PR China
Michael I. Posner
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Received 10 November 2004; received in revised form 25 January 2005; accepted 30 January 2005.

Abstract

Background

Difficulty attending is a common deficit of schizophrenic patients. However, it is not known whether this is a global attentional deficit or relates to a specific attentional network.

Method

This study used the attention network test to compare schizophrenic patients (N=77) with controls (N=53) on the efficiency of three anatomically defined attentional networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control.

Results

Schizophrenic patients showed a large and highly significant deficit in the executive network and a smaller but significant deficit in the orienting network as well as in overall RT and accuracy. There was no deficit in the alerting network.

Conclusion

These results suggest some specificity in the attentional networks influenced by the disorder. The executive attention network has been shown in normal subjects to activate the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal areas. Previous data using neuroimaging with schizophrenic patients has shown abnormal control by the anterior cingulate. Our findings support this previous research by indicating that the major attentional deficit in schizophrenic patients is in a network that includes the anterior cingulate.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Attention, Attentional networks, Alerting, Orienting, Executive control