The frontal lobe and, especially, the
prefrontal cortex , together with the temporolimbic structures and the ganglia
of the base, are three widely interconnected brain systems, which have been
involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia since the time of Emil.
Kraepelin, to the point of considering schizophrenia as a fronto-temporolimbic
disease. In recent decades, multiple converging lines of research have shown
that in schizophrenia there is a dysfunction of the frontal cortex. The
defective or negative psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia resemble those of
patients with traumatic, vascular or degenerative lesions in the frontal lobe.
