Glucose metabolic rate in normals and schizophrenics during the Continuous Performance Test assessed by positron emission tomography.

Local cerebral uptake of glucose labelled with fluorine-18 was measured by positron emission tomography in 13 patients with schizophrenia and 37 right-handed volunteers. Patients received no medication for a minimum of 31 days and a mean of 30 weeks. The subjects were administered the labelled deoxyglucose just after the beginning of a 32-minute sequence of blurred numbers as visual stimuli for the Continuous Performance Test. In normal controls, task performance was associated with increases in glucose metabolic rate in the right frontal and right temporoparietal regions; occipital rates were unchanged. Patients with schizophrenia showed both absolutely and relatively reduced metabolic rates in the frontal cortex and in the temporoparietal regions compared with normal controls.