Identification of neural circuits underlying P300 abnormalities in schizophrenia

Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide a noninvasive method to evaluate ne ural activation and cognitive processes in schizophrenia The pathophysiolog ical significance of these findings would be greatly enhanced if scalp-reco rded ERP abnormalities could be related to specific neural circuits and/or regions of the brain. Using quantitative approaches in which scalp-recorded ERP components are correlated with underlying neuroanatomy in schizophreni a, we focused on biophysical and statistical procedures (partial least squa res) to relate the auditory P300 component to anatomic measures obtained fr om quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. These findings are consistent w ith other evidence that temporal lobe structures contribute to the generati on of the scalp-recorded P300 component and that P300 amplitude asymmetry o ver temporal recording sites on the scalp may reflect anatomic asymmetries in the volume of the superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenia.