Neurophysiological correlates of negative symptom domains in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

IntroductionNegative symptoms have long been recognized as a central feature of schizophrenia, which limit recovery, having a strong negative impact on real-life functioning. External validators of the negative symptoms domains might help refining hypotheses on their pathophysiological basis.AimsThe objective of this study was to evaluate, in the context of the multicenter study of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses, the relationships between auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) components and negative symptom domains in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ).MethodsWe examined ERPs recorded during an auditory odd-ball task in 115 chronic stabilized SCZ (78% on second-generation antipsychotics) and 62 matched healthy controls (HC). Negative symptoms were assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale.ResultsOur main findings included significant N100 and P3b amplitude reductions in SCZ compared to HC. P3b amplitude did not correlate with any negative symptom domain, while N100 amplitude correlated with both anhedonia and avolition domains.ConclusionsAvolition and anhedonia, often clustering in the same factor, are related to abnormalities of early components of the ERPs correlated with perceptual and automatic attention processes. None of the negative symptom domains is associated with abnormalities of the later stages indexed by P3 amplitude.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.