Occipital γ response to auditory stimulation in patients with schizophrenia

This study investigated changes in gamma oscillations during auditory sensory processing (auditory-evoked gamma responses, AEGR) and target detection (auditory event-related gamma responses, AERGR) in healthy controls (n=10) and patients with schizophrenia (n=10) using both single-trial and averaged time-frequency data analysis. The results show that single-trial gamma responses in patients were altered in magnitude and topographic pattern for both the AEGR and the AERGR experimental conditions, whereas no differences were found for the averaged evoked gamma response. At the single-trial level, auditory stimuli elicited higher gamma responses at both anterior and occipital sites in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls. Furthermore, in patients with schizophrenia target detection compared to passive listening to stimuli was related to increased single-trial gamma power at frontal sites. In controls enhancement of the gamma response was only apparent for the averaged gamma response, with a distribution largely restricted to anterior sites. The differences in oscillatory activity between healthy controls and patients with schizophrenia were not reflected in the behavioral measure (i.e., counting targets). We conclude that gamma activity triggered by auditory stimuli in schizophrenic patients might have less selectivity in timing and alterations in topography and may show changes in amplitude modulation with task demands. The present study may indicate that in patients with schizophrenia neuronal information is not adequately transferred, possibly due to an over-excitability of neuronal networks and excessive pruning of local connections in association cortex.