Cerebellar deficits in schizophrenia are associated with executive dysfunction

Abstract

Cerebellar abnormalities have been documented in schizophrenia in postmortem, functional and volumetric neuroimaging studies. This study aims to establish the relationship between structural changes in the cerebellum and executive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia using voxel-based morphometry. We compared 28 outpatients with 28 healthy controls. A widely used executive battery and the voxel-based morphometry approach were used to investigate possible structural cerebellum changes on magnetic resonance imaging. Working memory dysfunctions in schizophrenia correlated with grey matter in both cerebellar hemispheres and vermis. Mental flexibility dysfunctions also correlated with reductions in white matter volume in bilateral cerebellum. This evidence supports the contribution of cerebellar grey and white matter deficits to executive dysfunctions observed in schizophrenia.