Individuals with schizophrenia present hypo- and hyperactivation during implicit cueing in an inhibitory task

Background.The primary purpose of this investigation was to assess the neural correlates of implicit cueing during an inhibitory task in schizophrenia when performance accuracy was matched with healthy comparison subjects.Methods.We compared 17 individuals with chronic schizophrenia (SZ; medicated, 13.9 average years of illness) and 17 healthy comparison subjects (HC) matched for hit and false alarm rates, age, and education on a visual Go/Nogo task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this task, one of the go stimuli also served implicitly as a cue predictive of a subsequent inhibitory (Nogo) trial.Conclusions.Findings suggest that even when matched for overall performance accuracy, individuals with SZ exhibit difficulties with inhibition and cue processing that may relate to core deficits in cognitive control and stimulus processing. In particular, these findings point towards an important role of the parietal cortex for cued inhibitory processes in healthy populations.