Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 33, Issue 7, 1 April 1993, Pages 513-519
Biological Psychiatry

Impairment of early cortical processing in schizophrenia: An event-related potential confirmation study

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(93)90005-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Abnormalities of auditory information processing represent a core feature of schizophrenic psychopathology. Event-related potentials (ERP) provide an objective index of the information processing deficits associated with schizophrenia and a tool for investigation of the underlying pathophysiology. The best established abnormality is a decrease in the amplitude of auditory P300. In an “oddball” paradigm, P300 is preceded by a series of earlier, negative-polarity ERP components that index discrete, prior information-processing events. The earliest such component, mismatch negativity (MMN), is elicited whenever a deviant, “oddball” stimulus interrupts a sequence of repetitive standard stimuli. MMN is generated principally within primary auditory cortex or adjacent structures on the superior temporal plane, suggesting that it indexes the earliest cortical event in the cognitive processing of auditory information. In the present study, MMN was studied in a group of 14 chronic schizophrenic subjects relative to 12 age- and IQ-matched normal controls in a passive auditory oddball paradigm in order to test the hypothesis that auditory information processing is impaired in schizophrenia, even at the level of primary sensory cortex. Schizophrenic subjects showed a significant reduction in MMN amplitude relative to controls, with a trend toward a greater deficit on the left than the right side. The finding of impaired MMN generation in schizophrenia suggests that information processing is impaired even at the level of auditory cortex and that the pathophysiological processes underlying information processing dysfunction in schizophrenia are widespread throughout the cortex, rather than limited to high-order association cortex such as prefrontal or mesial temporal cortex.

References (38)

  • R.B. Ammons et al.

    The Quick Test (QT): Provisional manual

    Psychol Rep

    (1962)
  • J. Baribeau-Braun et al.

    Schizophrenia: A neurophysiological evaluation of abnormal information processing

    Science

    (1983)
  • K. Barrett et al.

    Brain indicators of altered attention and information processing in schizophrenic patients

    Br J Psychiatry

    (1986)
  • P.E. Barta et al.

    Auditory hallucinations and smaller superior temporai gyral volume in schizophrenia

    Am J Psychiatry

    (1990)
  • D.H.R. Blackwood et al.

    Cognitive brain potentials and their application

    Br J Psychiatry

    (1990)
  • M. Brecher et al.

    Event-related potentials to high-incentive stimuli in unmedicated schizophrenic patients

    Biol Psychiatry

    (1983)
  • G. Degreef et al.

    Volumes of ventricular system subdivisions measured from magnetic resonance images in first-episode schizophrenic patients

    Arch Gen Psychiatry

    (1992)
  • C.C. Duncan et al.

    P300 in schizophrenia: State or trait marker?

    Psychopharmacol Bull

    (1987)
  • S.F. Faux et al.

    Analysis of scalp voltage asymmetries using Hotelling's T2 methodology

    Brain Topogr

    (1990)
  • Cited by (213)

    • An active inference perspective on the negative symptoms of schizophrenia

      2021, The Lancet Psychiatry
      Citation Excerpt :

      People with schizophrenia appear to possess imprecise top–down predictions, and hence track predictable targets less well during eye occlusion, but track erratic targets more closely than people without schizophrenia.27 Other lines of evidence28,29 also suggest that imprecise top–down priors are a core trait; patients do not adapt to predictable stimuli, adapt faster to sudden changes in the beads task, 30 and are resistant to optical illusions that rely on top–down contextual predictions.31 In a system characterised by imprecise top–down priors, compensatory reductions in the precision of bottom–up sensory input might arise to minimise prediction errors.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text