Abstract #0125

Activation & Deactivation in the Cerebellum in Schizophrenia Studied Using Verbal Working Memory FMRI

Kayako Matsuo¹, S.H. Annabel Chen², Chih-Min Liu³, Chen-Chung Liu³, Hai-Go Hwu³, Wen-Yih I. Tseng¹

¹National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; ²Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; ³Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

We applied verbal working memory (VWM) fMRI to investigate schizophrenia specifically focusing on the cerebellum. We designed high and low load conditions to examine two contrasts: high > low load contrast for the VWM activation, and low > high load contrast for the default mode network (DMN) “deactivation”. The VWM contrast activation overlapped with the Cerebellum VI, Crus I and Vermis. In contrast, the DMN contrast yielded activation in the Crus II of the cerebellum. An extensive “deactivation” observed in the control group but not in the schizophrenia group might be an indicator of the disease.