Persistent Neural Habituation Deficits in Early Psychosis: A Two-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Habituation—the decrease in response to repeated information—is a fundamental process that is highly conserved across species and ubiquitous across the nervous system, although substantial individual differences emerge as early as infancy and are hypothesized to contribute to psychopathology. Convergent evidence from cognitive, electrophysiological, and genetic studies have long pointed to habituation deficits in schizophrenia. Recent findings indicate that neural habituation in the hippocampus and occipital cortex is disrupted in the earliest stage of psychosis, suggesting a potential target for novel therapies. However, it is unclear whether habituation further deteriorates over the course of illness.