Aberrant brain dynamics in schizophrenia: delayed buildup and prolonged decay of the visual steady-state response

In schizophrenia, aberrant brain activity has been reported both during stimulus processing and at rest. Evoked response amplitude is a function of both the number and synchronization of neurons firing in relation to a stimulus. It is at present unclear whether schizophrenia patients have normal synchronization of neural activity in relation to stimulus processing, and whether the amount and time course of synchronization is related to their evoked response amplitudes. EEG brain dynamics in response to visual steady-state stimulation were assessed in 12 schizophrenia and 12 healthy subjects at three stimulation durations (2, 4, and 6 s). Group differences in the visual evoked potential, the visual steady-state response, and the local coherence of the visual steady-state response were evaluated over time. Schizophrenia patients had smaller and delayed event-related potentials. Moreover, they had a slower buildup of steady-state amplitude following stimulation onset and a prolonged decrease after stimulation offset. Groups did not differ during mid-segments of steady-state stimulation. Increase in coherence to stimulation onset did not differ between-groups, but coherence decay of the visual steady-state response following stimulus offset was delayed in schizophrenia patients. The initial response to visual stimulation among schizophrenia subjects, therefore, may be reduced in amplitude due to weak signal strength, not poor coordination between distant cortical regions. The prolonged recovery function of schizophrenia patients' visual system may indicate abnormal nonlinearity in neural response. These findings have implications understanding the nature of evoked response differences between schizophrenia and normal groups especially in repetitive stimulus paradigms.