Abnormal brain lateralization and connectivity in schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder mainly characterized by thought disturbances, hallucinations, and decay of social and cognitive performances. From past attempts to identify the exclusive brain lesions responsible for specific domains of schizophrenia symptoms such as delusion and auditory hallucinations, recent data pointed towards network alterations leading to abnormal brain asymmetry and connectivity as important determinants of schizophrenia pathophysiology. Several contributions have reported reduced brain lateralization in schizophrenia, causing a failure of left hemisphere dominance. Evidence of altered connectivity among distinct cortical areas is also accumulating. The aim of the present article is to critically review such contributions.