Rj. Erwin et al., P50 ABNORMALITIES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - RELATIONSHIP TO CLINICAL AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL INDEXES OF ATTENTION, Schizophrenia research, 33(3), 1998, pp. 157-167
While the P50 component (50-60-ms latency) of the auditory evoked pote
ntial has been reported as abnormal in schizophrenia, few studies have
examined the relationship between this abnormality and clinical or ne
uropsychological measures. To examine these possible relationships, mi
d-latency auditory evoked potentials were recorded at the CZ recording
site of 47 patients with schizophrenia in response to binaural clicks
presented at three stimulus rates: 1, 5 and 10/sec. A sub-sample of p
atients were then divided into high- (n=15) and low-P50 abnormality (n
=16) groups based on a median split of the P50 amplitude at a rate of
10/sec (a greater amplitude at this rate suggests a greater abnormalit
y in recovery) of the entire sample. Only those patients with complete
neuropsychological and clinical data and who were reasonably matched
on demographic dimensions were included. A multivariate analysis of va
riance of 11 neuropsychological function profile scores showed a signi
ficant group x global score interaction (Hotelling t=3.97, p<0.005). T
he high-abnormality group had relatively greater deficits for attentio
n profile scores than for the remaining neuropsychological measures. A
n analysis of global subscores for SAPS and SANS clinical measures rev
ealed a significant difference only for the SANS attention subscale (p
< 0.05). The high-abnormality group was rated as more severe on the a
ttention measure. These convergent findings across both phenomenologic
al and neuropsychological measures suggest that abnormalities in P50 r
ecovery may be linked to deficits in attention processes in schizophre
nia. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.