Targeted training modifies oscillatory brain activity in schizophrenia patients

Abstract

Effects of both domain-specific and broader cognitive remediation protocols have been reported for neural activity and overt performance in schizophrenia (SZ). Progress is limited by insufficient knowledge of relevant neural mechanisms. Addressing neuronal signal resolution in the auditory system as a mechanism contributing to cognitive function and dysfunction in schizophrenia, the present study compared effects of two neuroplasticity-based training protocols targeting auditory–verbal or facial affect discrimination accuracy and a standard rehabilitation protocol on magnetoencephalographic (MEG) oscillatory brain activity in an auditory paired-click task. SZ were randomly assigned to either 20 daily 1-hour sessions over 4 weeks of auditory–verbal training (N = 19), similarly intense facial affect discrimination training (N = 19), or 4 weeks of treatment as usual (TAU, N = 19). Pre-training, the 57 SZ showed smaller click-induced posterior alpha power modulation than did 28 healthy comparison participants, replicating Popov et al. (2011b). Abnormally small alpha decrease 300–800 ms around S2 improved more after targeted auditory–verbal training than after facial affect training or TAU. The improvement in oscillatory brain dynamics with training correlated with improvement on a measure of verbal learning. Results replicate previously reported effects of neuroplasticity-based psychological training on oscillatory correlates of auditory stimulus differentiation, encoding, and updating and indicate specificity of cortical training effects.

Social Cognitive Training Improves Emotional Processing and Reduces Aggressive Attitudes in Ex-combatants

“…In line with previous studies, we showed that changes in EP observed in the SCTIG are likely driven by reorganization of brain areas necessary for perceptual analysis of faces in connection with areas implicated in the attribution of valance (Mazza et al, 2010; Popov et al, 2015; Campos et al, 2016). Using EEG, improvements in alpha power modulations have been observed in schizophrenia patients after training aimed at enhancing the analysis of perceptual features to promote social abilities (Popov et al, 2015).…”

“…Using EEG, improvements in alpha power modulations have been observed in schizophrenia patients after training aimed at enhancing the analysis of perceptual features to promote social abilities (Popov et al, 2015). Mazza et al (2010) also found enhancement in emotional recognition of anger, disgust, and sadness through neuropsychological and physiological (i.e., N200) responses after an intervention relying on imitation theories (Mazza et al, 2010).…”

Measuring the capacity for auditory system plasticity: An examination of performance gains during initial exposure to auditory-targeted cognitive training in schizophrenia

“…Specifically, the degree of APS improvement occurring after one hour of exposure to auditory frequency discrimination training may indicate the degree to which adaptive tuning has taken place within temporal cortex; the positive association we observed between baseline verbal memory scores and APS improvement suggests that this tuning may be greater (or may occur more rapidly) in patients with relatively strong verbal memory abilities prior to training. Taken in context with previous research showing a positive relationship between APS improvements and cognitive enhancement (Fisher et al, 2015; Murthy et al, 2012; Popov et al, 2011; 2012; 2015), our results further suggest that patients with relatively intact verbal memory performance at baseline may ultimately be shown to respond better to ATCT than might patients with relative verbal memory impairments. This assertion makes intuitive sense, given that the learning and memory capabilities indexed by measures like the CVLT-II presumably engage similar neuroplastic mechanisms to those engaged by ATCT (e.g.…”

“…Auditory perceptual improvements (i.e. auditory “tuning”) gained during treatment may be a key predictor of ATCT response, as they have been shown to correspond to overall degree of cognitive enhancement (Murthy et al, 2012; Popov et al, 2011; 2012; 2015). Notably, Fisher et al (2015) found that auditory processing speed improvements after 20 hours of training correlated with degree of cognitive enhancement after up to 40 hours of training, suggesting that these early auditory processing improvements may reflect the “plasticity potential” of the frontotemporal network and thus index the likelihood of cognitive benefit from ATCT.…”

Consistency of abnormal sensory gating in first‐admission and chronic schizophrenia across quantification methods

“…Participants were recruited for a larger project on training-induced cortical reorganization in schizophrenia. Neuromagnetic indices and their association with cognitive tests for largely overlapping samples were reported before (Carolus et al, 2014) and after targeted, neuroplasticity-oriented intervention (Popov et al, 2015). The present results used entirely different scoring of the MEG data assessed prior to training.…”