Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia (ScZ) often show impairments in auditory information processing. These impairments have been related to clinical symptoms, such as auditory hallucinations. Some researchers have hypothesized that aberrant low-frequency oscillations contribute to auditory information processing deficits in ScZ. A paradigm for which modulations in low-frequency oscillations are consistently found in healthy individuals is the auditory continuity illusion (ACI), in which restoration processes lead to a perceptual grouping of tone fragments and a mask, so that a physically interrupted sound is perceived as continuous. We used the ACI paradigm to test the hypothesis that low-frequency oscillations play a role in aberrant auditory information processing in patients with ScZ (N = 23). Compared with healthy control participants we found that patients with ScZ show elevated continuity illusions of interrupted, partially-masked tones. Electroencephalography data demonstrate that this elevated continuity perception is reflected by diminished 3 Hz power. This suggests that reduced low-frequency oscillations relate to elevated restoration processes in ScZ. Our findings support the hypothesis that aberrant low-frequency oscillations contribute to altered perception-related auditory information processing in ScZ.
Highlights
Patients with schizophrenia (ScZ) often show impairments in auditory information processing
There is robust evidence that aberrant neural oscillations are related to clinical symptoms and stimulus processing deficits in ScZ, which could be evident in impaired perceptual grouping and——in increased restoration of interrupted sounds
We focused on the analysis of 3 Hz oscillations and explored whether any neural alterations in patients would relate to their clinical symptoms
Summary
Patients with schizophrenia (ScZ) often show impairments in auditory information processing. A paradigm for which modulations in low-frequency oscillations are consistently found in healthy individuals is the auditory continuity illusion (ACI), in which restoration processes lead to a perceptual grouping of tone fragments and a mask, so that a physically interrupted sound is perceived as continuous. There is robust evidence that aberrant neural oscillations are related to clinical symptoms and stimulus processing deficits in ScZ, which could be evident in impaired perceptual grouping and——in increased restoration of interrupted sounds. The 3–4 Hz power increase was dampened when participants perceived a continuity illusion versus when they perceived an interruption These findings were replicated, to a large extent, in a recent study, where the authors investigated induced power changes and phase locking in response to 3 Hz amplitude-modulated tones during the interval of an interrupting noise[27]. Modulation of low-frequency oscillatory activity appears to subserve auditory restoration
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