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Corollary discharge dysfunction in schizophrenia: evidence for an elemental deficit
Daniel H Mathalon1, Judith M Ford
1Psychiatry Service, San Francisco VA Medical Center, USA. daniel.mathalon@ucsf.edu
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience
|May 3, 2008
Summary
Schizophrenia may involve faulty efference copy (or corollary discharge) mechanisms, affecting sensory perception and contributing to symptoms. Research shows these crucial motor-sensory processes are deficient in schizophrenia patients.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Schizophrenia is increasingly linked to impaired efference copy/corollary discharge mechanisms.
- These mechanisms normally help distinguish self-generated sensations from external stimuli.
- Dysfunction may lead to sensory-perceptual disturbances, hallucinations, delusions, and altered motivation in schizophrenia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of efference copy/corollary discharge mechanisms in schizophrenia.
- To develop and apply neurophysiological paradigms to study these processes.
- To determine if these mechanisms are deficient in schizophrenia patients.
Main Methods:
- Developed neurophysiological paradigms to assess motor-sensory feed-forward processes.
- Studied speech-auditory and somatosensory systems in chronic schizophrenia patients.
- Analyzed neural responses during speech production to identify corollary discharge effects and efference copy activity.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated deficient efference copy/corollary discharge mechanisms in chronic schizophrenia.
- Observed neural responses during talking indicating impaired corollary discharge.
- Identified synchronous neural activity preceding speech, reflecting efference copy, which was altered in schizophrenia.
Conclusions:
- Motor-sensory feed-forward process dysfunction is evident in schizophrenia.
- These findings suggest a fundamental pathophysiological process in schizophrenia.
- This could lead to novel electrophysiological measures for schizophrenia diagnosis and understanding, independent of medication effects.
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