Abnormal auditory pattern perception in schizophrenia

Abstract

Mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to deviation from physical sound parameters (e.g., pitch, duration) is reduced in individuals with long-term schizophrenia (Sz), suggesting deficits in deviance detection. However, MMN can appear at several time intervals as part of deviance detection. Understanding which part of the processing stream is abnormal in Sz is crucial for understanding MMN pathophysiology. We measured MMN to complex pattern deviants, which have been shown to produce multiple MMNs in healthy controls (HC). Both simple and complex MMNs were recorded from 27 Sz and 27 matched HC. For simple MMN, pitch- and duration-deviants were presented among frequent standard tones. For complex MMN, patterns of five single tones were repeatedly presented, with the occasional deviant group of tones containing an extra sixth tone. Sz showed smaller pitch MMN (p=.009, ~110ms) and duration MMN (p=.030, ~170ms) than healthy controls. For complex MMN, there were two deviance-related negativities. The first (~150ms) was not significantly different between HC and SZ. The second was significantly reduced in Sz (p=.011, ~400ms). The topography of the late complex MMN was consistent with generators in anterior temporal cortex. Worse late MMN in Sz was associated with increased emotional withdrawal, poor attention, lack of spontaneity/conversation, and increased preoccupation. Late MMN blunting in schizophrenia suggests a deficit in later stages of deviance processing. Correlations with negative symptoms measures are preliminary, but suggest that abnormal complex auditory perceptual processes may compound higher-order cognitive and social deficits in the disorder.

Mismatch negativity to pitch pattern deviants in schizophrenia

“…A missing tone amongst standard groups of six tones produced a smaller MMN in individuals with long‐term schizophrenia (150–200 ms after the expected onset of the tone; Salisbury & McCathern, ) and in recent‐onset patients with schizophrenia (100–250 ms; Rudolph et al ., ). We measured MMN to an extra tone that violated a quantity/number grouping rule in individuals with long‐term schizophrenia (Haigh et al ., ), and found no significant differences between groups in the early MMN, but found significant reductions in the late MMN in schizophrenia (~ 350 ms after the onset of the extra tone), suggesting specific deficits in later deviance processing. This was the first study to show specific deficits in the late MMN in schizophrenia, and it is possible that the late MMN may be more sensitive to deficits in complex deviance detection.…”

“…The peak amplitude of all three MMNs was maximal over frontocentral areas and exhibited CSDs consistent with bilateral sources from temporal lobe, although source modelling was not performed. The complex MMN tasks generated both an early (~ 125 ms) and a late MMN (~ 500 ms), while the simple pitch MMN task only generated an early MMN (~ 125 ms), consistent with previous studies (Korpilahti et al ., ; Zachau et al ., ; Recasens et al ., ; Haigh et al ., ; Korpilahti et al ., ). The results shown here demonstrate that while the early MMN responses on complex pattern tasks appear to be within normal limits in Sz, the later (and in HC, the most prominent) MMN is deficient in Sz.…”

Impairment in Mismatch Negativity but not Repetition Suppression in Schizophrenia

“…Schizophrenia diagnosis was based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-P). Symptom scales, neuropsychological tests, and surveys were identical to those used by Haigh et al (2016) (Table 1). All subjects had normal hearing as assessed by audiometry and were paid for participation.…”

“…We recently reported that a deviance-related negative ERP can be elicited by adding an extra tone to a predictable 5-stimulus group, further suggesting that MMN is distinct from RS (Haigh et al 2016). Incidentally, this type of paradigm affords the opportunity to investigate the questions raised above, as identical tones were repeated with the same physical parameters commonly used in MMN research.…”

Auditory prediction errors and auditory white matter microstructure as predictors of psychotic experiences in healthy individuals

“…MMN to duration deviants is a particularly strong candidate biomarker of schizophrenia (Erickson et al, 2016). Other more complex paradigms with double deviants (Perez et al, 2014), tone omission deviants (Salisbury and McCathern, 2016) and pattern violations (Haigh et al, 2016b) have also demonstrated significant attenuation in MMN in patients with schizophrenia and individuals at high-risk. A more recent meta-analysis reported that the magnitude of attenuation in MMN in schizophrenia patients to complex paradigms are as large as that in simple paradigms and therefore suggest that pitch and duration paradigms provide simpler avenues for further research (Avissar, 2018).…”