Language lateralization in left-handed patients with schizophrenia

We evaluated hemispheric lateralization of language production in non-right-handed (NRH) patients with schizophrenia compared with matched right-handed (RH) patients, NRH control, and RH control subjects. First, the ability to generate verbs during overt training trials was checked in 78 subjects. They were then evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a covert verb generation task. No significant interactions between illness and handedness and no illness effect were observed in functional asymmetry. There was significantly less leftward asymmetry of the inferior frontal, precentral, and supramarginal gyri as well as the intra-parietal sulcus in non-right-handers compared to right-handers taking into account the task performances. Our findings suggested that decreased lateralization for language production was more closely related to handedness than to schizophrenia. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.