Attention disorder and white matter structure changes in schizophrenia / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Attention is an essential cognitive function which was use to perceive the external world, and it is the basis of all cognitive activities.Other cognitive functions such as working memory, executive function, information processing speed and so on, are also adversely affected in hypoprosexia or hyperfocusing state.Patients with schizophrenia have severe attention disorder, which makes patients unable to successfully complete the task of work or study, thus reduce the quality of life.Attention disorder exists throughout the whole course of this disease, and there is no specific drug for it.In recent years, antipsychotic medications have widespread application, but it has not shown up significantly improvement of attention disorder, worse still, its side effects will exacerbate the disease, which results in the impairment of the patients' ability to learn and explore the novelties.Neuroimaging markers of attention disorder in schizophrenia are the focus of current researches.White matter fibers are important pathways that connect attention networks and maintain the three-dimensional structure of the brain.Previous studies have suggested that attention disorder may be related to abnormalities of white matter fibers connecting various encephalic regions.In particular, abnormalities in the integrity of white matter, such as corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, have been reported to be significantly associated with attention disorder in patients with schizophrenia.In this study, the relationship between attention disorder and white matter structure in patients with schizophrenia is reviewed through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique.