Abstract
Early auditory processing (EAP) deficits have been consistently documented in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ). However, a relationship between EAP and executive attention has not been confirmed in SZ versus healthy controls (HC). The current study aimed to demonstrate that unlike HC, in SZ patients, auditory change-detection event-related potentials (ERPs) are significantly associated with executive working memory (WM) functioning. Additionally, correlational analyses investigated the relationships between patients’ auditory ERPs, WM performance, and schizophrenia symptom severity scores. We examined verbal WM accuracy associated with “executive-control” prefrontal cortex mechanisms and EAP ERPs under midline prefrontal electrodes in 12 SZ patients versus 12 demographically matched HC. Mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitudes and latencies in SZ patients were not significantly different from HC, however, their verbal WM performance was significantly impaired versus HC. Importantly, prolonged MMN latencies in the SZ group were correlated with better WM accuracy. In the HC group, WM accuracy was unrelated to MMN latencies. Patients’ MMN parameters were unrelated to schizophrenia symptom-domain severity. However, patients’ WM RTs and accuracy were significantly related to illness severity and negative symptom severity, respectively. Therefore, inefficient sensory excitation related to EAP timing may underlie poor executive verbal WM functioning and might indirectly exacerbate the severity of negative symptoms in SZ. Treatments targeting prefrontal cortex dysfunction in schizophrenia are discussed.
Highlights
Accepted: 30 January 2022Schizophrenia (SZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving neurophysiological abnormalities, a complex and heterogeneous set of positive and negative symptoms, cognitive impairments, and pervasive dysexecutive behaviors directly associated with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) hypofunction [1,2,3]
After reviewing the score distributions of averaged Mismatch negativity (MMN) peak amplitudes/latencies obtained from the MMN difference waveforms and working memory (WM) accuracy/RT scores within each group, we noted one outlier score within the healthy controls (HC) MMN
There were no significant differences in MMN peak-amplitudes and latencies between patients and HC, marginal differences in MMN peak-amplitudes approached significance (t(19.85) = −1.8, p = 0.087)
Summary
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving neurophysiological abnormalities, a complex and heterogeneous set of positive and negative symptoms, cognitive impairments, and pervasive dysexecutive behaviors directly associated with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) hypofunction [1,2,3]. It has been suggested that EA impairments and negative symptoms in SZ both represent a failure in DLPFC engagement during executive WM operations [2,3], and, alternatively, may be affected by abnormal bottom-up sensory neural activity In comparison to SZ patients’ impaired EA functioning (e.g., poor WM performance), HC EA functioning is possibly independent of early sensory cortex excitability, since their EA responses (i.e., working memory accuracy) are driven mainly by top-down prefrontal networks that efficiently integrate encoded multidimensional information
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
