Event-related potentials and item recognition in depressed, schizophrenic and alcoholic patients

Abstract

Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to pure tones and performance on a measure of item recognition were compared in 20 controls, 14 alcoholics, 20 depressed and 21 schizophrenic patients. Compared with normal controls, P2 and N2 were delayed and of diminished amplitude in the psychopathological groups. Increased amplitude of P1 in alcoholics, diminished N1 in depressed patients, increased latencies of N1 in schizophrenics and N2 in alcoholics were pathology-specific. Unusual patterns of response in the item recognition test (elevated intercept and flattened slope) and its relationship with ERPs distinguished the diagnostic groups from the controls. Support for the preferential involvement of the left hemisphere in schizophrenia and of the right hemisphere in depression was found. Disinhibition of CNS activity in the response of alcoholics (increased P1 and delayed P3) was indicated. The findings suggested that discriminant analysis of auditory ERPs to simple, pure tones, in conjunction with psychometric data significantly differentiated pathologic groups from each other and from controls.

High-density recording and topographic analysis of the auditory oddball event-related potential in patients with schizophrenia

“…Amplitude and latency alterations have also been reported for the N1 (Ford et al 1994b;Kessler and Steinberg 1989;O'Donnell et al 1994), the P2 Sandman et al 1987), the N2 (Ford et al 1994b;Javitt et al 1995;O'Donnell et al 1993O'Donnell et al , 1994Sandman et al 1987), and, in the target minus standard difference wave, the mismatch negativity (Javitt et al 1995) and the N2 difference (N2d) . These components are thought to arise from a combination of neural sources in primary and secondary auditory cortical areas in the superior and lateral temporal lobes, with contributions from frontal lobe activity (Giard et al 1988(Giard et al , 1994Hegerl et al 1994;Pantev et al 1995;Ponton et al 1993;Rogers et al 1991;Tarkka et al 1995).…”

An event-related potential evaluation of the cognitive performance of U. S. Navy alcoholics.

“…Patterson et al (1987) found that NI00 amplitude was smaller for alcoholics. Sandman et al (1987) found that the N1 and P2 components were smaller in alcoholic subjects.…”

“…Only one other study, however, has been found that attempted to predict alcoholic group membership by means of ERPs (Sandman et al, 1987).…”

“…The variable values "discriminate" the subjects by group and therefore predict group membership (Gnanadesikan, 1989). Sandman et al (1987) achieved a high (64 percent, 25 percent chance) percentage of classification of alcoholics by means of a SWDA procedure within an ERP study.…”

“…These criteria have the following weaknesses: (a) an inability to diagnose until a critical incident occurs, (b) an inability to test the efficacy of neuronal pathways, and (c) an inability to document the functional recovery of the substance abuser. A few studies have been conducted that indicate that ERP component parameters may be of value in the diagnosis and prediction of alcoholism (Hillyard, 1978;Patterson et al, 1978;Porjesz & Begleiter, 1979;Sandman, Gerner, O'Halloran, & Isenhart, 1987). Two such related components are the NI-P2 component, which appears to differentiate between attended and unattended channels, and the N100 component, which seems to be a gauge of stimulus relevance (Hillyard, 1978).…”