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Laterality effects in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

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Abstract

There are numerous reports in the literature of lateralised structural cerebral abnormalities and alterations of the corpus callosum in the major psychoses. In the light of these findings the purpose of this study was to directly compare hemispheric differences and callosal interhemispheric transmission (IT) in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To do that we tested schizophrenic (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD) patients and controls in a simple manual reaction time (RT) task with lateralised visual stimuli (Poffenberger paradigm) which enables one to test both laterality effects and IT time. We found an overall slowing of responses with the right hand in schizophrenics but not in bipolar patients, who, like controls, showed no hand differences. This selective slowing down of the right hand is likely to be related to abnormalities of intrahemispheric cortico-cortical connections in the left hemisphere. In contrast, IT time was similar in SCZ and BD patients and did not differ with respect to controls. Two are the novel findings of the present study: first both SZC and BD share a normal IT of visuomotor information despite the presence of callosal abnormalities. Second, an impairment of intrahemispheric left hemispheric processing is present only in SCZ patients. This represents a potentially important clue to a further understanding of the pathogenetic differences between the two major psychoses.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Brambilla was partly supported by grants from the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education, the Italian Ministry for University and Research (PRIN n. 2005068874), and the Italian Ministry of Health (IRCCS “E. Medea”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inter-University Center for Behavioural Neurosciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Marcella Bellani, Cinzia Perlini, Stefania Cerruti, Adele Ferro, Veronica Marinelli, Silvia Sponda, Gianluca Rambaldelli & Michele Tansella

  2. Department of Neurological and Visual Sciences, Section of Physiology, National Institute of Neuroscience, University of Verona, Strada le Grazie, 8, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Carlo A. Marzi & Silvia Savazzi

  3. Inter-University Center for Behavioural Neurosciences, DPMSC, Section of Psychiatry, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Paolo Brambilla

  4. Scientific Institute, IRCCS ‘E. Medea’, Udine, Italy

    Paolo Brambilla

Authors
  1. Marcella Bellani
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  2. Carlo A. Marzi
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  3. Silvia Savazzi
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  4. Cinzia Perlini
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  5. Stefania Cerruti
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  6. Adele Ferro
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  7. Veronica Marinelli
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  8. Silvia Sponda
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  9. Gianluca Rambaldelli
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  10. Michele Tansella
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  11. Paolo Brambilla
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Correspondence to Silvia Savazzi.

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Bellani, M., Marzi, C.A., Savazzi, S. et al. Laterality effects in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Exp Brain Res 201, 339–344 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2021-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2021-0

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