Schizophrenia is often characterized as a disorder of aberrant brain connectivity, although mapping putative connectivity disturbances at the level of whole-brain circuits, and their relation to cognitive impairments, has proved challenging. We analyzed whole-brain maps of task-related functional connectivity measured during cognitive control performance and found evidence for a widespread disturbance of functional connectivity in people with first-episode schizophrenia, which occurred regardless of task context and which was most pronounced in frontoposterior systems. In addition, we identified a more specific deficit in functional connectivity of frontoparietal regions that was associated with the implementation of cognitive control. Together these findings suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a generalized and widespread functional connectivity deficit upon which are superimposed more specific, context-dependent alterations of interregional functional coupling.
