The central executive network and executive function in healthy and persons with schizophrenia groups: a meta-analysis of structural and functional MRI

This meta-analysis evaluated the extent to which executive function can be understood with structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Studies included structural in schizophrenia ( k = 8; n = 241) and healthy controls (k = 12; n = 1660), and functional in schizophrenia (k = 4; n = 104) and healthy controls ( k = 12; n = 712). Results revealed a positive association in the brain behavior relationship when pooled across schizophrenia and control samples for structural ( pr = 0.27) and functional ( pr = 0.29) modalities. Subgroup analyses revealed no significant difference for functional neuroimaging ( pr = .43, 95%CI = -.08-.77, p = .088) but with structural neuroimaging ( pr = .37, 95%CI = -.08-.69, p = .015) the association to executive functions is lower in the control group. Subgroup analyses also revealed no significant differences in the strength of the brain-behavior relationship in the schizophrenia group ( pr = .59, 95%CI = .58-.61, p = .881) or the control group ( pr = 0.19, 95%CI = 0.18–0.19, p = 0.920), suggesting concordance.