What Is Left of Attention in Schizophrenia?-Reply

In Reply.—  Dr Bracha's finding of left-ward turning preferences in schizophrenic patients does support our own demonstration of right-sided visual neglect in these patients. The fact that results in both studies were also found in neuroleptic-naive patients and that no patients in either study had an opposite asymmetry adds strong support to the hypothesis of lateralized abnormalities in schizophrenia. We differ in the interpretation of the result. Dr Bracha argues that rightsided dopaminergic hyperactivity¹ is responsible and we have suggested elsewhere^2-4 that a left-sided dopminergic deficiency (or a similar lesion) is responsible.A dopaminergic-deficiency hypothesis of schizophrenia has been discussed by other authors^5-7 and is not incompatible with available data. We base our conclusion on the following: (1) We have also observed hyperactivity of the left globus pallidus in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients,⁸ a finding seen following the appearance of selective unilateral dopaminergic lesions.⁹ This