Reduced word-repetition effect in the event-related potentials of thought-disordered patients with schizophrenia

Matsumoto, Kazunori; Yamazaki, Hisato; Nakamura, Masaki; Sakai, Hirotaka; Miura, Nobuyoshi; Kato, Tomonori; Miwa, Shinya; Ueno, Takashi; Saito, Hidemitsu; Matsuoka, Hiroo

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2004.03.013

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Volume 134, Issue 3 , Pages 225-231, 30 April 2005

Reduced word-repetition effect in the event-related potentials of thought-disordered patients with schizophrenia

Kazunori Matsumoto
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 22 717 7262; fax: +81 22 717 7266.
Hisato Yamazaki
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Masaki Nakamura
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Hirotaka Sakai
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Nobuyoshi Miura
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Tomonori Kato
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Shinya Miwa
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Takashi Ueno
- Faculty of Education, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Hidemitsu Saito
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
Hiroo Matsuoka
- Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan

Received 4 February 2004; accepted 11 March 2004.

Abstract

Repetition effect in event-related potentials (ERPs) was studied in 10 non-thought-disordered (non-TD) patients with schizophrenia, 8 thought-disordered (TD) patients with schizophrenia, and 10 normal control subjects while they performed a semantic categorization task with incidental word repetitions. All patients were in a stable or partially remitted stage. Although both healthy control and non-TD groups produced more positive ERPs to the repeated words than to the new words (ERP repetition effect) for 250–500 ms, the TD group did not show the ERP repetition effect. These findings suggest that the abnormal attenuation of the ERP repetition effect during semantic processing may be more prominent in schizophrenic patients with thought disorder than in those without the symptom.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Thought disorder, Priming, Semantic processing, Memory, N400, Vulnerability