Relation of Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction to Working Memory and Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Abstract

These results are consistent with the hypotheses that working memory dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia is caused by a disturbance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and that this disturbance is selectively associated with cognitive disorganization. Further, the pattern of behavioral performance suggests that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction does not reflect a deficit in the maintenance of stimulus representations per se but points to deficits in more associative components of working memory.