Functional MRI and schizophrenia

Although cognitive disorders are a key aspect of schizophrenia, emotional system dysfunction is also considered a very important element of this disease, especially since several regions of the brain are involved in emotional regulation. The main objective of this study was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the effect of ziprasidone on different neural responses to emotional stimuli in the prefrontal region, particularly in the anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], the orbitofrontal cortex [OFC], and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]. We examined brain activation in patients with schizophrenia before and after treatment with ziprasidone by presenting them with a series of emotionally charged images (negative, neutral, and positive) associated with different instructions regarding the types of images they should select (negative, neutral, and positive) based on how they felt.