Equivalent mismatch negativity deficits across deviant types in early illness schizophrenia-spectrum patients

Abstract

Neurophysiological abnormalities in auditory deviance processing, as reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN), have been observed across the course of schizophrenia. Studies in early schizophrenia patients have typically shown varying degrees of MMN amplitude reduction for different deviant types, suggesting that different auditory deviants are uniquely processed and may be differentially affected by duration of illness. To explore this further, we examined the MMN response to 4 auditory deviants (duration, frequency, duration + frequency “double deviant”, and intensity) in 24 schizophrenia-spectrum patients early in the illness (ESZ) and 21 healthy controls. ESZ showed significantly reduced MMN relative to healthy controls for all deviant types (p < 0.05), with no significant interaction with deviant type. No correlations with clinical symptoms were present (all ps > 0.05). These findings support the conclusion that neurophysiological mechanisms underlying processing of auditory deviants are compromised early in illness, and these deficiencies are not specific to the type of deviant presented.

Reliability of Mismatch Negativity Event-Related Potentials in a Multisite, Traveling Subjects Study

“…deviants. Such averaging is consistent with the group analysis approach applied to MMN data in other CHR [31] and schizophrenia [19] studies.…”

Auditory dysfunction in schizophrenia: integrating clinical and basic features

“…The MMN is a widely studied ERP component that reflects pre-attentive processing of the relationship between successive auditory stimuli at the level of the auditory cortex 26–34 . It is elicited most commonly in the context of an auditory oddball paradigm, in which a sequence of repetitive identical stimuli (‘standards’) is interrupted infrequently and unexpectedly by a physically different, deviant (‘oddball’) stimulus.…”

“…As with tone matching deficits, the degree of deficit in MMN generation is as large as it is in other well-validated neurocognitive tests, such as tests of executive processing or working memory 30,31 . Deficits in MMN generation in schizophrenia have been reported for multiple types of deviants, including pitch, duration or intensity 32 , with little difference in the degree of deficit to different deviance types 32–34 .…”

Mismatch negativity

“…Hay et al, 2015 [25] reported that that neurophysiological mechanisms underlying processing of auditory deviants are compromised early in the illness, and these deficiencies are not specific to the type of deviant presented.…”