What’s intact and what’s not within the mismatch negativity system in schizophrenia
Lisa
R.
Whitson1, 2, 3*,
Ellen
Smith1,
Pat
Michie1, 2, 4,
Ulrich
Schall2, 4, 5,
Philip
B.
Ward6 and
Juanita
Todd1, 2, 3, 4*
-
1
School of Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Australia
-
2
Priority Research Centre Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health Research, Australia
-
3
Hunter Medical Research Institute, Australia
-
4
Schizophrenia Research Institute, Australia
-
5
School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Australia
-
6
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia
BACKGROUND Repetitive patterning in sound facilitates inferences about the most likely properties of sounds to follow. Mismatch negativity (MMN) is elicited when a sound fails to match the inference (deviant). Normative research has shown that when linking deviants into pairs, with repeated presentation the MMN amplitude to the second deviant reduces significantly. Smaller mismatch MMN in schizophrenia indexes deficient gain control (group difference in utilising a limited dynamic range). Although clear that this group have a lower limit to MMN size, this study addressed whether smaller MMN in schizophrenia reflects poor perceptual learning generally or simply a restriction in the upper limit to the signal.
METHODS We examined MMN generated by outpatients with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia (n=33), a matched control group (n=30), and a group of young healthy controls (n=28). MMN was elicited to four deviants in two sequences: one random sequence and one linked sequence. The random sequence presented a highly repetitious standard tone (p=0.76) and four physically different deviant sounds (p=0.06 each) that occur at unpredictable positions in the sequence. The linked sequence included the same sounds but the deviant sounds were presented in predictable pairs.
RESULTS Results reveal that despite smaller MMN, persons with schizophrenia are equally able to reduce MMN size evoked by a deviant when its occurrence is paired with a prior cue-sound. Results also revealed alterations in the evoked response to repeated sounds in the Schizophrenia group that appear to be exacerbations of age-related amplitude decline.
DISCUSSION These results suggest that persons with Schizophrenia are unimpaired in the use of memory-based inferential processes that result in reduced MMN when contextual information is provided. Changes in the processing of standard tones highlight the need to identify all contributions to limits in gain control in schizophrenia.
Keywords:
MMN (Mismatch negativity),
Schizophrenia,
EEG/ERP,
Auditory Perception,
context effects
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Memory
Citation:
Whitson
LR,
Smith
E,
Michie
P,
Schall
U,
Ward
PB and
Todd
J
(2013). What’s intact and what’s not within the mismatch negativity system in schizophrenia.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00092
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Received:
25 Sep 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Miss. Lisa R Whitson, School of Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, lisawhitson147@gmail.com
Dr. Juanita Todd, School of Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, Juanita.Todd@newcastle.edu.au