Motor asymmetry, a neurobiologic abnormality in the major psychoses

Psychiatry Res. 1995 Aug 28;57(3):279-82. doi: 10.1016/0165-1781(95)02725-c.

Abstract

A century after Kraepelin, clinical scientists still debate whether the major functional psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar illness, are separate disease entities or fall on opposite ends of a spectrum of severe psychopathology. In a study of control of hand-muscle force, patients with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder exhibited opposite asymmetries, with greater right-hand dyscontrol in schizophrenia, and greater left-hand dyscontrol in bipolar disorder. This suggests that there is greater pathological involvement of the dominant hemisphere in schizophrenia and of the non-dominant hemisphere in bipolar disorder.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Bipolar Disorder / diagnosis
  • Bipolar Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Bipolar Disorder / psychology
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology
  • Dominance, Cerebral / physiology*
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality / physiology
  • Hand Strength / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Schizophrenia / diagnosis
  • Schizophrenia / physiopathology*
  • Schizophrenic Psychology*