Left temporal hypoperfusion has been reported in some cases of schizophrenia. However, left temporal cortex is involved in lexical access. Moreover, difficulties with accessing the lexical-semantic memory store have been proposed in schizophrenia. Therefore, a relation between impaired lexical access and left temporal activity in schizophrenia might be argued.

Here, we report the case of a 33 years old man with disorganized schizophrenia (using DSM-IV-TR criteria) who underwent complete neuropsychological assessment and measurement of cerebral perfusion with 99mTc-ECD (ethyl cysteinate dimer) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

We found evidence for naming disabilities with Deloche and Hannequin's picture naming test of 80 objects. Moreover, a semantic knowledge test (Desgranges and al) suggested the preservation of the lexical-semantic memory store. This was not due neither to mental deficiency (evaluated by WAIS-III and Raven's matrices PM 38), nor to executive dysfunction (evaluated by Frontal Assessment at Bedside, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Verbal fluencies, Stroop test and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure), nor to any abnormality of the central nervous system (on the RMI investigation). However, SPECT revealed a left temporal hypoperfusion.

This case report suggests that left temporal hypoperfusion described in some cases of schizophrenia might be related to an impairment of lexical access.