Auditory recovery cycle dysfunction in schizophrenia: A study using event-related potentials

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies reported evidence of impaired auditory information processing in patients with schizophrenia. The recovery cycle of the auditory N I ERP component was measured in 17 patients with schizophrenia and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Subjects performed a visual distraction task while listening to 80-dB SPL, 1000-Hz tone pairs, presented with intra-pair intervals of 1, 3, 5 or 7 s, with inter-pair intervals of 9-13 s. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly reduced N I amplitudes for S I stimuli compared with healthy volunteers. For NI amplitudes elicited by S2 stimuli, there was a significant group effect whilst the main effect of intra-pair interval was not significant. These results provide additional evidence of inhibitory auditory processing deficits in schizophrenia. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.