Current study results from the report, 'Somatosensory system deficits in Schizophrenia revealed by MEG during a median-nerve oddball task,' have been published. "Although impairments related to somatosensory perception are common in schizophrenia, they have rarely been examined in functional imaging studies. In the present study, magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to identify neural networks that support attention to somatosensory stimuli in healthy adults and abnormalities in these networks in patient with schizophrenia," scientists writing in the journal Brain Topography report (see also Schizophrenia).

"A median-nerve oddball task was used to probe attention to somatosensory stimuli, and an advanced, high-resolution MEG source-imaging method was applied to assess activity throughout the brain. In nineteen healthy subjects, attention-related activation was seen in a sensorimotor network involving primary somatosensory (S1), secondary somatosensory (S2), primary motor (M1), pre-motor (PMA), and paracentral lobule (PCL) areas. A frontal-parietal-temporal 'attention network', containing dorsal-and ventral-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC and VLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), superior parietal lobule (SPL), inferior parietal lobule (IPL)/supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and temporal lobe areas, was also activated. Seventeen individuals with schizophrenia showed early attention-related hyperactivations in S1 and M1 but hypo-activation in S1, S2, M1, and PMA at later latency in the sensorimotor network. Within this attention network, hypoactivation was found in SPL, DLPFC, orbitofrontal cortex, and the dorsal aspect of ACC. Hyperactivation was seen in SMG/IPL, frontal pole, and the ventral aspect of ACC in patients," wrote M.X. Huang and colleagues, Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The researchers concluded: "These findings link attention-related somatosensory deficits to dysfunction in both sensorimotor and frontal-parietal-temporal networks in schizophrenia."

Huang and colleagues published their study in Brain Topography (Somatosensory system deficits in Schizophrenia revealed by MEG during a median-nerve oddball task. Brain Topography, 2010;23(1):82-104).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting M.X. Huang, Research, Radiology and Psychiatry Services, VA San Diego Healthcare System, CA USA.

The publisher of the journal Brain Topography can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA.