Continuous-processing related ERPS in schizophrenic and normal children

doi:10.1016/0006-3223(94)90099-X

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 35, Issue 8, 15 April 1994, Pages 525-538

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(94)90099-X Get rights and content

Abstract

The continuous performance task (CPT) has proven to be sensitive to schizophrenic impairments. Multichannel event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded from schizophrenic and normal children during performance of easy and hard versions of the CPT. Schizophrenics produced fewer hits, more false alarms, and prolonged reaction times. Poor performance in schizophrenics was associated with four ERP abnormalities: (1) Schizophrenics did not exhibit the normal increase in amplitude of an early-onset, processing-related negativity from nontarget to target stimuli, suggesting a failure to appropriately allocate attentional resources to discriminative processing. (2) Although P3 amplitude to targets was not significantly smaller in schizophrenic children, the distribution of P3 amplitude between target and nontarget responses in the easy and hard versions of the CPT was abnormal, suggesting that schizophrenics differed in the strategic allocation of resources in later stages of CPT processing. (3) In all task conditions schizophrenics showed a parietal negative component with a latency of 400 msec seen in younger, but not older normal children, suggestive of maturational lag. (4) ERP data demonstrated absence of right-lateralized P1/N1 amplitude in schizophrenic children. Taken together these data indicate that at several stages of information processing, schizophrenics are deficient in the control and strategic allocation of processing resources.

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Cited by (19)

The impact of reward, punishment, and frustration on attention in pediatric bipolar disorder
2005, Biological Psychiatry
Citation Excerpt :
To a certain extent, our results in BPD are consistent with those in other pediatric psychopathologies. For example, whereas normal baseline P3 amplitude has been documented in ADHD children (Novak et al 1995; Oades et al 1996; Satterfield et al 1988) and in children at risk for schizophrenia (Friedman et al 1986), a lack of increased P3 amplitude in response to increased testing demands has been documented in ADHD children (Jonkman et al 2000) and actively psychotic children with schizophrenia (Strandburg et al 1994). It is important, however, to clarify that, in the affective Posner, task complexity remained constant, whereas the emotional demands increased across tasks.
Theories in affective neuroscience suggest that mood disorders involve perturbations in attention–emotion interactions. We tested the hypothesis that frustration adversely impacts attention and behavior in children with bipolar disorder (BPD).
Thirty-five children with BPD and 26 normal control subjects completed: 1) a Posner attention task with feedback but no contingencies; 2) an affective Posner with contingencies; and 3) an affective Posner that used rigged feedback to induce frustration. Reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected.
At baseline (task 1), there were no between-group differences in behavior or ERPs. Children with BPD exhibited reduced parietal P3 amplitude on task 3 only. On trials occurring after negative feedback, control subjects showed decreased RT when contingencies were introduced (task 2), whereas BPD subjects did not.
The introduction of contingencies was associated with impaired performance of children with BPD, suggesting deficits in their ability to adapt to changing contingencies. In addition, frustration was associated with disrupted attention allocation in children with BPD. We hypothesize that children with BPD inappropriately deployed attention to their internal frustration rather than to the task, causing impaired performance.
The Maudsley early onset schizophrenia study: Cognitive function in adolescents with recent onset schizophrenia
2003, Schizophrenia Research
Neuropsychological function has been little studied early in the course of adolescent onset schizophrenia. The present study investigated cognitive function in adolescents with recent onset schizophrenia (n=20) and healthy controls (n=21), employing a comprehensive battery of intelligence, memory and executive function paradigms. Relative to the control group, the patients showed significant or near-significant deficits in more than half of the cognitive variables we examined. A substantial proportion of this broadly based neuropsychological deficit could be accounted for, at least in part, by a mild decrement in general intellectual ability. However, deficits in general and verbal memory remained highly significant after co-varying for IQ.
The continuous performance test: A window on the neural substrates for attention?
2002, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
Attention is a complex process whose disturbance is considered a core deficit in a number of disorders [e.g., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia]. In 1956, Rosvold and colleagues [J. Consult. Psychol. 20 (1956) 343.] demonstrated that the continuous performance test (CPT) as a measure of sustained attention was highly sensitive to brain damage or dysfunction. These findings have been replicated with various populations and with various versions of the CPT. The CPT is now cited as the most frequently used measure of attention in both practice and research. Across studies, results are consistent with models of sustained attention that involve the interaction of cortical (frontal, temporal, parietal), subcortical (limbic, basal ganglia), and functional systems including the pathways between the basal ganglia, thalamus, and frontal lobes. Right hemisphere involvement (asymmetric response) is also evident across multiple studies. As such, the CPT demonstrates sensitivity to dysfunction of the attentional system whether this is due to diffuse or more focal damage/dysfunction or in conjunction with any specific disorder. CPT performance can be viewed as symptom specific (attentional disturbance), but it is not disorder specific (e.g., ADHD). Implications for neuropsychological interpretation of CPT results are presented.
Event-related brain potentials during a continuous performance test (CPT) task in normal children
2001, Archives of Medical Research
Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is a commonly used paradigm to assess attention disorders that could involve working memory processes.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) during a CPT (X-AX) test were obtained in 16 healthy male students, with ages ranging from 9 to 11 years (X̄ = 10.3). In grouped averaged ERPs, an endogenous slow positive potential was recorded in the first task (infrequent letter detection); maximum was at 460 msec with a slight lateralization tendency toward left parietal area. In the second task (target detection with an A as warning signal), an early (maximum at 330 msec) and more acute peak was detected without evidence of any lateralization.
Reaction times were significantly shorter for the second task. Electrophysiologic differences between both target conditions showed an early, remarkable, and statistically significant component located at the parietal area at 340 msec.
These ERPs findings could be interpreted as correlates with working memory processes in children.
Thought disorder in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
2001, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
This study compared thought disorder and associated cognitive variables in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia.
Speech samples of 115 ADHD, 88 schizophrenic, and 190 normal children, aged 8 to 15 years, were coded for thought disorder. A structured psychiatric interview, the WISC-R, the Continuous Performance Test, and the Span of Apprehension task were administered to each child.
The ADHD and schizophrenic groups had thought disorder compared with the normal children. However, the subjects with ADHD had a narrower range of less severe thought disorder than did the schizophrenic subjects. The younger children with ADHD and schizophrenia had significantly more thought disorder than did the older children with these diagnoses. IQ, attention, and working memory were associated with thought disorder in the ADHD but not the schizophrenic group.
Thought disorder in childhood is not specific to schizophrenia and reflects impaired development of children's communication skills.
Continuous-processing related ERPS in adult schizophrenia: Continuity with childhood onset schizophrenia
1999, Biological Psychiatry
Background: Previous work with schizophrenic children disclosed deficits on two continuous performance tests (CPTs) and ERP indices of reduced attentional resource allocation.
Methods: The two CPTs were administered to adult schizophrenics and matched control subjects. The simple CPT required only that the subject respond whenever the target digit was displayed. The complex version required a response whenever any digit was displayed on two successive trials. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during task performance.
Results: Schizophrenics had fewer hits on both CPT versions, showed a greater drop in performance from the simple to the complex CPT, and took longer to respond than controls. The processing negativity (Np) showed a greater amplitude increase from nontarget to target in normals than in schizophrenics, and the overlapping P2 component was more negative in normals. P3 latency was longer in schizophrenics, but P3 amplitude did not differ.
Conclusions: Group performance and processing negativity effects replicated those from an earlier study of schizophrenic and normal children administered the same versions of the CPT, suggesting similar abnormalities in the allocation and modulation of information processing resources.

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^☆: This work was supported by NIMH Research Grant MH37665.

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Original articleContinuous-processing related ERPS in schizophrenic and normal children☆

Abstract

Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol

Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol

Biol Psychiatry

Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol

Childhood onset schizophrenia

Brain indicators of altered attention and information processing in schizoprenic patients

Br J Psychiatry

Schizophrenia: A neurophysiological evaluation of abnormal information processing

Science

Event-related potentials and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia

Electrophysiological correlates of cognitive process: P3b and Nc, Basic, Clinical, and Developmental Research

Surprise!… surprise?

Psychophysiology

Is the P300 a manifestation of context updating

Behav Brain Sci

P300 in schizophrenia: State or trait marker?

Psychopharmacol Bull

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised: Form L

Multiple late positive potentials in two visual discrimination tasks

Psychophysiology

Schizophrenia: The Epigenetic Puzzle

Electrophysiology of cognition

A triarchic model of P300 amplitude

Psychophysiology

Genetic aspects of preadolescent schizophrenia

Am J Psychiatry

The phenomenology of childhood psychoses

Br J Psychiatry

Event-related brain potentials go grammatical errors and semantic anomalies

Memory and Cognition

Original article
Continuous-processing related ERPS in schizophrenic and normal children☆