Abnormal Cerebral Laterality in Schizotypal Personality Disorder

This study was conducted to evaluate cerebral laterality in schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) because research has previously focused primarily on other schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Understanding cerebral laterality in this population will help elucidate cognitive dysfunction and other potential deficits in SPD. Subjects were 24 SPDs and 13 normal controls (NC) matched for age and parental SES. All were right-handed males. Three neuropsychological measures of cerebral laterality, the Chimeric Faces Task, a dichotic complex tones task, and the Finger Tapping Test, were administered to all subjects. When compared to NCs, SPDs showed 4 pattern of cerebral asymmetry characterized by decreased left ear (right hemisphere) performance on the dichotic listening task. No group differences were found on the Finger Tapping Test or the Chimeric Faces Task. These results suggest anomalous cerebral laterality in SPD.