Quantum and Component Analysis of P3a and P3b from Auditory Single Trial ERPs Differentiates Borderline Personality Disorder from Schizophrenia

Abstract

Traditional approaches to EEG modelling use the methods of classical physics to reconstruct scalp potentials in terms of explicit physical models of cortical neuron ensembles. The principal difficulty with such approaches is that the multiplicity of cellular processes, with an intricate array of deterministic and random influencing factors, prevents the creation of consistent biophysical parameter sets. An original, empirically testable solution has been achieved in our previous studies by a radical departure from the deterministic equations of classical physics to the probabilistic reasoning of quantum mechanics. This crucial step relocates the models of elementary bioelectric sources of EEG signals from the cellular to the molecular level where ions are considered as elementary sources of electricity. The rationale is that, despite dramatic differences in cellular machineries, statistical factors governed by the rules of the central limit theorem produce the EEG waveform as a statistical aggregate of the synchronized activity of multiple microscale sources. Based on these innovations, we introduce a method of comprehensive computerized analysis of event related potentials directly from single trial recordings. This method provides a universal model of single trial ERP components in both frequency and time domains. For the first time, this tool provides effective quantification of all significant cognitive components in single trial ERPs and represents a viable alternative to the traditional method of averaging. We demonstrate the clinical significance of the additional information provided by the new method, using ERP data from patients with borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. Referring to the P300 as an important objective marker of psychiatric disorders, we show that the new method reliably identifies P3a and P3b as the major components of the P3. The diagnostic significance of differentiating the P3a and P3b components of P3 is that it provides an objective electrophysiological measure that distinguishes borderline personality disorder from schizophrenia.