Early auditory information processing in schizophrenia: a preliminary report

Numerous theorists have postulated that incoming environmental information is altered with schizophrenic illness, due to aberrant sensory processing in subcortical systems. Brainstem evoked potential recordings were obtained during passive auditory information processing in groups of chronic schizophrenic patients, affective disordered patients, and normals. These neuroelectric measures of brainstem and midbrain functioning suggest that the three study groups do not statistically differ in terms of latency characteristics. It is noteworthy, however, that a particular subset of chronic schizophrenic patients yielded latency characteristics falling more than one standard deviation from the total population mean under all experimental conditions.