Neural correlates of prospective memory in individuals with schizotypal personality features

Objective: Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to perform actions in the future. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders show impairments in PM but neural correlates of these impairments remain unclear. The present study aimed to examine brain activation during PM to identify impairments in individuals with schizotypal personality features. Method: Nineteen participants with schizotypal features and 22 healthy controls participated in a functional MRI experiment while performing a PM task. Results: Results showed that the prefrontal cortex (including Brodmann Area [BA] 10), middle temporal gyrus, and precuneus were activated when performing the PM task compared with baseline. The schizotypal and control groups did not differ in behavioral PM performance. However, participants with schizotypal features showed decreased activations in the inferior and medial frontal lobes (BA 45, and 8). Conclusions: These results confirmed that the PM network involves prefrontal cortex, including BA 10. The lower activation in prefrontal cortex of individuals with schizotypal features when performing a PM task indicates brain activation abnormality. Notably, this abnormality may occur in the absence of any behavioral manifestation. Our findings support the hypothesis of frontal lobe involvement in PM deficits observed in individuals with schizotypal features.