The mismatch negativity: an index of cognitive decline in neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases and in ageing

Abstract

Cognitive impairment is a core element shared by a large number of different neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Irrespective of their different aetiologies and symptomatologies, most appear to converge at the functional deficiency of the auditory-frontal cortex network of auditory discrimination, which indexes cognitive impairment shared by these abnormalities. This auditory-frontal cortical deficiency, and hence cognitive decline, can now be objectively measured with the mismatch negativity and its magnetic equivalent. The auditory-frontal cortical network involved seems, therefore, to play a pivotal, unifying role in the different abnormalities. It is, however, more likely that the dysfunction that can be detected with the mismatch negativity and its magnetoencephalographic equivalent manifests a more widespread brain disorder, namely, a deficient N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor function, shared by these abnormalities and accounting for most of the cognitive decline.

Visual mismatch negativity: a predictive coding view

“…The auditory and visual MMN response is thought to reflect the important cognitive process of automatic stimulus discrimination (for reviews, see Kujala et al, 2007; Czigler and Pató, 2009; Näätänen et al, 2007, 2011; Kujala and Näätänen, 2010). A relationship between auditory MMN and behavioral measures of discrimination ability has been reported in several studies (Lang et al, 1990; Näätänen et al, 1993; Baldeweg et al, 1999; Desjardins et al, 1999; Amenedo and Escera, 2000; Kujala et al, 2001; Novitski et al, 2004; De Sanctis et al, 2009).…”

“…The importance of auditory MMN-generating processes in supporting cognition and everyday behavior by veridical perception is highlighted in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders where cognitive impairments are often accompanied by MMN deficits (for a review, see Näätänen et al, 2011). Numerous studies on developmental dyslexia used auditory MMN as an objective index of deficits in auditory information processing (Kujala and Näätänen, 2001).…”

Effects of aging on the neuromagnetic mismatch detection to speech sounds

“…Thus, a question emerges as to whether the speech discrimination defect in aged adults occurs at the level of pre-attentive, attention-independent perception. Mismatch negativity (MMN) and its magnetic counterpart (MMNm) are useful electrophysiological markers to evaluate the integrity of automatic central auditory processing (Hsiao, Cheng, Liao, & Lin, 2010;Kujala, Tervaniemi, & Schroger, 2007;Naatanen et al, 2011;Yabe et al, 2004). A number of studies have reported a lower amplitude of MMN/MMNm in response to pure-tone stimuli in aged adults (Alain, McDonald, Ostroff, & Schneider, 2004;Cheng, Baillet, Hsiao, & Lin, 2013;Cheng, Hsu, & Lin, 2013;Cheng, Wang, Hsu, & Lin, 2012;Cooper, Todd, McGill, & Michie, 2006;Czigler, Csibra, & Csontos, 1992;Kiang, Braff, Sprock, & Light, 2009), while to our knowledge, little is known about the effects of aging on the early cortical processes of phonetic discrimination.…”

Anterior Cingulate Abnormality as a Neural Correlate of Mismatch Negativity in Schizophrenia

“…It is observed as negative voltage fluctuations on the subject's scalp with a peak latency of about 100-250 ms from stimulus onset when the subject perceives deviant stimuli [15,16,17]. The MMN can be elicited by any occasional discriminable change in a sound sequence, irrespective of the direction of the subject's attention [18]; this process is therefore thought to be automatic and preattentive [19,20,21]. A reduction in MMN amplitude [22,23,24] and a prolongation of its peak latency [25] have been shown in patients with schizophrenia.…”

“…A reduction in MMN amplitude [22,23,24] and a prolongation of its peak latency [25] have been shown in patients with schizophrenia. Although several studies have revealed the areas in the gray matter that generate the MMN, predominantly in the temporal auditory cortex and frontal cortex [19,20], the relationship between the white matter and MMN has not been investigated.…”