Neurobiology of the frontal and temporal lobes in schizophrenia: A meta-analytic review of neuroimaging and neuropathological findings

Twenty years of research on the neurobiology of the frontal and temporal lobes in schizophrenia, are quantitatively reviewed. Cohen's d is used to assess the magnitude of difference between schizophrenia patients and normal controls on measures of brain volume and activation, based on magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and xenon inhalation. Twenty-four mean effect sizes from 129 studies are reported on volume and activation for the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, hippocampus, amygdala and superior temporal gyrus. In total, neuroimaging results from 3258 schizophrenia patients and 3103 normal controls are recorded across meta-analyses. The results suggest that many, but not most schizophrenia patients have decreased frontal and temporal lobe volume and activation. Compared with normal controls, patients showed these decreases on all but one variable examined.;Taken together, the observations imply that the dysfunction in schizophrenia exists at the level of the neuron, and in terms of interconnectivity and neural circuitry, rather than in discrete anatomic areas. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).