Cingulate abnormalities associated with PANSS negative scores in first episode schizophrenia

There is evidence for the involvement of the cingulate gyrus in schizophrenia. We present details of a Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) analysis of SPECT data from the largest study (N = 39) of drug naive schizophrenic patients. The main findings are that there is decreased perfusion in the anterior cingulate during verbal Fluency when patients are compared to controls (matched individually by age, gender and father's social class as determined by occupation) and also that PANSS negative scores correlate negatively with regional cerebral blood flow in the cingulate gyrus (Pearson's Correlation coefficient of r = -0.49 and significance p < 0.005). This suggests that measurement of change of perfusion in this region could be a useful biological marker in assessing the effect of neuroleptics on negative symptoms.