EEG REACTIVITY AND EEG ACTIVITY IN NEVER-TREATED ACUTE SCHIZOPHRENICS, MEASURED WITH SPECTRAL PARAMETERS AND DIMENSIONAL COMPLEXITY

Our approaches to the use of EEG studies for the understanding of the pathogenesis of schizophrenic symptoms are presented. The basic assump tions of a heuristic and multifactorial model of the psychobiological brain mechainsms underlying the organization of normal behavior is des cribed and used in order to formulate and test hypotheses about the pa thogenesis of schizophrenic behavior using EEG measures. Results from our studies on EEG activity and EEG reactivity (= EEG components of a memory-driven, adaptive, non-unitary orienting response) as analyzed w ith spectral parameters and ''chaotic'' dimensionality (correlation di mension) are summarized. Both analysis procedures showed a deviant bra in functional organization in never-treated first-episode schizophreni a which, within the framework of the model, suggests as common denomin ator for the pathogenesis of the symptoms a deviation of working memor y, the nature of which is functional and not structural.