Auditory recovery cycle dysfunction in schizophrenia: A study using event-related potentials
Received 3 August 2004; received in revised form 17 April 2005; accepted 28 May 2005.
Abstract
Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies reported evidence of impaired auditory information processing in patients with schizophrenia. The recovery cycle of the auditory N1 ERP component was measured in 17 patients with schizophrenia and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Subjects performed a visual distraction task while listening to 80-dB SPL, 1000-Hz tone pairs, presented with intra-pair intervals of 1, 3, 5 or 7 s, with inter-pair intervals of 9–13 s. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly reduced N1 amplitudes for S1 stimuli compared with healthy volunteers. For N1 amplitudes elicited by S2 stimuli, there was a significant group effect whilst the main effect of intra-pair interval was not significant. These results provide additional evidence of inhibitory auditory processing deficits in schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Research Unit, Level 1, Don Everett Building, Liverpool Hospital, South Western Sydney Area Health Service, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool, BC, NSW 1871, Australia
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Corresponding author. Schizophrenia Research Unit, Level 1, Don Everett Building, Liverpool Hospital, South Western Sydney Area Health Service, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool, BC, NSW 1871, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 9828 6184; fax: +61 2 9828 6181.
ABSTRACT