ABSTRACT
The role of right hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia is reviewed in this chapter. Four categories of evidence are examined: neuropsychological analogies, neuropsychiatric analogies, neurobiological findings and neuropsychological test data. The neuropsychological analogies comprise the development of a typical schizophrenic phenomenon under conditions of definite focal brain damage, e.g. the experience of an alien quality to one’s own voice with right parietal damage. The neuropsychiatric analogies are the clinical syndromes which occur with focal brain damage, e.g. epileptic psychoses. The neurobiological evidence comes from electrophysiological, neuropathological and scan studies. The neuropsychological test results are those in which specific one-or-other hemisphere-sensitive tests are used, rather than test batteries. I argue that right hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia is amply supported by the above four categories of evidence.
