Improving Clinical, Cognitive, and Psychosocial Dysfunctions in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Neurofeedback Randomized Control Trial

Objectives. The aim of this study was to use neurofeedback (NF) training as the add-on therapy in patients with schizophrenia to improve their clinical, cognitive, and psychosocial condition. The study, thanks to the monitoring of various conditions, quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), was supposed to give an insight into mechanisms underlying NF training results. Methods. Forty-four male patients with schizophrenia, currently in a stable, incomplete remission, were recruited into two, 3-month rehabilitation programs, with standard rehabilitation as a control group (R) or with add-on NF training (NF). Pre- and posttherapy primary outcomes were compared: clinical (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)), cognitive (Color Trails Test (CTT), d2 test), psychosocial functioning (General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS), and Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS)), quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG), auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), and serum level of BDNF. Results. Both groups R and NF improved significantly in clinical ratings (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)). In-between analyses unveiled some advantages of add-on NF therapy over standard rehabilitation. GSES scores improved significantly, giving the NF group of patients greater ability to cope with stressful or difficult social demands. Also, the serum-level BDNF increased significantly more in the NF group. Post hoc analyses indicated the possibility of creating a separate PANSS subsyndrome, specifically related to cognitive, psychosocial, and BDNF effects of NF therapy. Conclusions. Neurofeedback can be effectively used as the add-on therapy in schizophrenia rehabilitation programs. The method requires further research regarding its clinical specificity and understanding mechanisms of action.

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EEG Measurement of Emotion Processing in Children with Daytime Urinary Incontinence

Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie ◽

10.1024/1422-4917/a000563 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 46 (4) ◽

pp. 336-341

Author(s):

Justine Niemczyk ◽

Monika Equit ◽

Katja Rieck ◽

Mathias Rubly ◽

Catharina Wagner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Urinary Incontinence ◽

Patient Group ◽

Imaging Techniques ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Control Group ◽

Central Processing ◽

Daytime Urinary Incontinence ◽

Related Potentials

Abstract. Objective: Daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is common in childhood. The aim of the study was to neurophysiologically analyse the central emotion processing in children with DUI. Method: In 20 children with DUI (mean age 8.1 years, 55 % male) and 20 controls (mean age 9.1 years, 75 % male) visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded after presenting emotionally valent (80 neutral, 40 positive, and 40 negative) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as an oddball-paradigm. All children received a full organic and psychiatric assessment. Results: Children with DUI did not differ significantly from controls regarding responses to emotional pictures in the frontal, central, and parietal regions and in the time intervals 250–450 ms, 450–650 ms, and 650–850 ms after stimulus onset. The patient group had more psychological symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities than the control group. Conclusions: EEG responses to emotional stimuli are not altered in children with DUI. Central emotion processing does not play a major role in DUI. Further research, including a larger sample size, a more homogeneous patient group (regarding subtype of DUI) or brain imaging techniques, could reveal more about the central processing in DUI.

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Event related potentials in cases of amblyaudia

International Journal of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery ◽

10.18203/issn.2454-5929.ijohns20201293 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 747

Author(s):

Wessam Mostafa Essawy

Keyword(s):

Auditory Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Speech Development ◽

Screening Tests ◽

Control Group ◽

Auditory Information ◽

Central Auditory Processing ◽

Auditory Processing Disorders ◽

Central Auditory Processing Disorders ◽

Related Potentials

Background: Amblyaudia is a weakness in the listener’s binaural processing of auditory information. Subjects with amblyaudia also demonstrate binaural integration deficits and may display similar patterns in their evoked responses in terms of latency and amplitude of these responses. The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of amblyaudia in a population of young children subjects and to measure mismatch negativity (MMN), P300 and cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) for those individuals.Methods: Subjects included in this study were divided into 2 groups control group that consisted of 20 normal hearing subjects with normal developmental milestones and normal speech development. The study group (GII) consisted of 50 subjects with central auditory processing disorders (CAPDs) diagnosed by central auditory screening tests. Results: With using dichotic tests including dichotic digits test (DDT) and competing sentence test (CST), we could classify these cases into normal, dichotic dysaudia, amblyaudia, and amblyaudia plus with percentages (40%, 14%, 38%, 8% respectively). Using event related potentials, we found that P300 and MMN are more specific in detecting neurocognitive dysfunction related to allocation of attentional resources and immediate memory in these cases.Conclusions: The presence of amblyaudia in cases of central auditory processing disorders (CAPDs) and event related potentials is an objective tool for diagnosis, prognosis and follow up after rehabilitation.

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The Influence of Subclinical Neck Pain on Neurophysiological and Behavioral Measures of Multisensory Integration

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci9120362 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 362

Author(s):

Antonia M. Karellas ◽

Paul Yielder ◽

James J. Burkitt ◽

Heather S. McCracken ◽

Bernadette A. Murphy

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Multisensory Integration ◽

Performance Measures ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Control Group ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Significant Group ◽

Related Potentials

Multisensory integration (MSI) is necessary for the efficient execution of many everyday tasks. Alterations in sensorimotor integration (SMI) have been observed in individuals with subclinical neck pain (SCNP). Altered audiovisual MSI has previously been demonstrated in this population using performance measures, such as reaction time. However, neurophysiological techniques have not been combined with performance measures in the SCNP population to determine differences in neural processing that may contribute to these behavioral characteristics. Electroencephalography (EEG) event-related potentials (ERPs) have been successfully used in recent MSI studies to show differences in neural processing between different clinical populations. This study combined behavioral and ERP measures to characterize MSI differences between healthy and SCNP groups. EEG was recorded as 24 participants performed 8 blocks of a simple reaction time (RT) MSI task, with each block consisting of 34 auditory (A), visual (V), and audiovisual (AV) trials. Participants responded to the stimuli by pressing a response key. Both groups responded fastest to the AV condition. The healthy group demonstrated significantly faster RTs for the AV and V conditions. There were significant group differences in neural activity from 100–140 ms post-stimulus onset, with the control group demonstrating greater MSI. Differences in brain activity and RT between individuals with SCNP and a control group indicate neurophysiological alterations in how individuals with SCNP process audiovisual stimuli. This suggests that SCNP alters MSI. This study presents novel EEG findings that demonstrate MSI differences in a group of individuals with SCNP.

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Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsaa038 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 285-291 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ruolei Gu ◽

Xiang Ao ◽

Licheng Mo ◽

Dandan Zhang

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Social Acceptance ◽

Cognitive Biases ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Control Group ◽

Social Feedback ◽

Feedback Processing ◽

Related Potentials ◽

High Social Anxiety

Abstract Social anxiety has been associated with abnormalities in cognitive processing in the literature, manifesting as various cognitive biases. To what extent these biases interrupt social interactions remains largely unclear. This study used the Social Judgment Paradigm that could separate the expectation and experience stages of social feedback processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in these two stages were recorded to detect the effect of social anxiety that might not be reflected by behavioral data. Participants were divided into two groups according to their social anxiety level. Participants in the high social anxiety (HSA) group were more likely to predict that they would be socially rejected by peers than did their low social anxiety (LSA) counterparts (i.e. the control group). Compared to the ERP data of the LSA group, the HSA group showed: (a) a larger P1 component to social cues (peer faces) prior to social feedback presentation, possibly indicating an attention bias; (b) a difference in feedback-related negativity amplitude between unexpected social acceptance and unexpected social rejection, possibly indicating an expectancy bias; and (c) a diminished sensitivity of the P3 amplitude to social feedback valence (be accepted/be rejected), possibly indicating an experience bias. These results could help understand the cognitive mechanisms that comprise and maintain social anxiety.

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Is cognitive processing affected in adults with hypospadias?: P300 study

Open Medicine ◽

10.1515/med-2015-0059 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hakan Tekeli ◽

Hasan Koçoğlu ◽

Cabir Alan ◽

Mustafa Emir Tavşanlı ◽

Halit Yaşar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

P300 Amplitude ◽

Military Hospital ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Control Group ◽

P300 Latency ◽

Urogenital System ◽

Cognitive Changes ◽

Related Potentials

AbstractBackground: Hypospadias is a common urogenital system disorder. The frenulum, which is the most sensitive area of the glans penis, is not present in patients with hypospadias. This may lead to a failure in sexual and ejaculatory function, and cause emotional problems affecting cognitive processes.Aim: We aimed to study auditory Event Related Potentials (ERP) in patients with hypospadias to understand the status of cognitive function.Materials and Methods: Seventeen patients with hypospadias who presented to the Urology Outpatient Clinic of Çanakkale Military Hospital, and 11 healthy individuals of similar age were chosen. The auditory oddball paradigm with ERP from the Cz and Fz head regions were studied. The latency and amplitude of the P300 wave were measured.Results: Both, the study and control groups consisted of young males. Although the study group had a longer P300 latency and lower P300 amplitude when compared to control group, the results were not statistically significant (p: 0.059 and 0.346 respectively).Conclusion: Although the results are not statistically significant, our findings indicate that there may be cognitive changes in patients with hypospadias. Further studies of larger sample size and older patient cohorts are needed.

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Impaired Emotional Self-Referential Processing in First-Episode Schizophrenia

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.591401 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Yanli Zhao ◽

Zhiren Wang ◽

Yueyao Zhang ◽

Yuanyuan Zhang ◽

Jinguo Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

First Episode ◽

Control Group ◽

Task Effects ◽

Referential Processing ◽

Schizophrenic Patients ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Automatic Attention ◽

Self Reference

Impairments in self-representation are relevant to the expression of psychosis. To date, the characteristics and neural mechanisms of self-impairment in schizophrenia remain unclear. To this end, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure brain activity in 56 first-episode patients with schizophrenia and 56 healthy controls. Participants judged personal trait adjectives regarding themselves, their mothers, or a public person, followed by an unexpected old/new recognition test. The recognition score for mother-reference adjectives was lower than that for self-reference adjectives in patients, while the control group showed comparatively high recognition scores for both self- and mother-referential adjectives. In addition, control subjects recognized more negative words, while patients remembered more positive words. ERP data revealed that controls exhibited typical task effects (self-reference = mother-reference > other-reference) during both automatic attention and effortful encoding periods [indexed by P2 and the late positive potential (LPP), respectively]. In contrast, patients only exhibited the task effect in the P2 amplitude. Moreover, controls exhibited larger P2 amplitudes during encoding negative than positive words, whereas patients had enhanced LPP amplitudes during memory retrieval of positive compared to negative words. These findings demonstrated self-representation dysfunction in first-episode schizophrenic patients in mother (the intimate other) referential processing and the absence of a negative memory bias.

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Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor Serum Level and Severity Symptom of Bataknese Male Patients with Schizophrenia in North Sumatera, Indonesia

Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences ◽

10.3889/oamjms.2019.550 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (12) ◽

pp. 1957-1961

Author(s):

Deasy Hendriati ◽

Elemeida Effendy ◽

Mustafa Mahfud Amin ◽

Vita Camellia ◽

Muhammad Surya Husada

Keyword(s):

Serum Level ◽

Negative Correlation ◽

Symptom Severity ◽

Negative Symptoms ◽

Chronic Schizophrenia ◽

Serum Levels ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Syndrome Scale ◽

Male Patients ◽

Negative Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that is multi-causative and multi-factor, generally affecting about 1% of the population. The elevation level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) offers several protections from other neurodegenerative processes that occur in schizophrenia since this deficit of neurotrophic factors can contribute to changes in brain structure and function that underlie the schizophrenia psychopathology.AIM: To analyse the correlation between BDNF serum levels and symptom severity by using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) instrument in Bataknese male patients with schizophreniaMETHODS: This study was a correlative analytical study with a cross-sectional approach using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) instrument to assess symptom severity with 60 subjects of Bataknese male patients with chronic schizophrenia. Moreover, this research was conducted at the Psychiatric Hospital of Prof. Dr M. Ildrem Medan, Indonesia. BDNF serum was analysed with the Quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay technique by via Quantikine ELISA Human CXCL8/IL-8 HS. Also, the data analysis was performed through Spearman's correlative bivariate analytics using SPSS software.RESULTS: A negative correlation between the BDNF serum level and the negative scale PANSS score in men with schizophrenia (r = -0.820, p < 0.001) was found. Moreover, there is a negative correlation between BDNF serum levels and PANSS total scores in men with schizophrenia (r = -0.648, p < 0.001)CONCLUSION: BDNF serum level in Bataknese male patients with schizophrenia has a relationship that affects the severity of symptoms in schizophrenic patients, especially for negative symptoms.

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Electroencephalographic Parameters Differentiating Melancholic Depression, Non-melancholic Depression, and Healthy Controls. A Systematic Review

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.648713 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Caroline Fussing Bruun ◽

Caroline Juhl Arnbjerg ◽

Lars Vedel Kessing

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Unipolar Depression ◽

Control Group ◽

Extensive Literature ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Melancholic Depression ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Individual ◽

Almost All

Introduction: The objective of this systematic review was to investigate whether electroencephalographic parameters can serve as a tool to distinguish between melancholic depression, non-melancholic depression, and healthy controls in adults.Methods: A systematic review comprising an extensive literature search conducted in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO in August 2020 with monthly updates until November 1st, 2020. In addition, we performed a citation search and scanned reference lists. Clinical trials that performed an EEG-based examination on an adult patient group diagnosed with melancholic unipolar depression and compared with a control group of non-melancholic unipolar depression and/or healthy controls were eligible. Risk of bias was assessed by the Strengthening of Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist.Results: A total of 24 studies, all case-control design, met the inclusion criteria and could be divided into three subgroups: Resting state studies (n = 5), sleep EEG studies (n = 10), and event-related potentials (ERP) studies (n = 9). Within each subgroup, studies were characterized by marked variability on almost all levels, preventing pooling of data, and many studies were subject to weighty methodological problems. However, the main part of the studies identified one or several EEG parameters that differentiated the groups.Conclusions: Multiple EEG modalities showed an ability to distinguish melancholic patients from non-melancholic patients and/or healthy controls. The considerable heterogeneity across studies and the frequent methodological difficulties at the individual study level were the main limitations to this work. Also, the underlying premise of shifting diagnostic paradigms may have resulted in an inhomogeneous patient population.Systematic Review Registration: Registered in the PROSPERO registry on August 8th, 2020, registration number CRD42020197472.

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Neuronal Correlates of Cognitive Control Are Altered in Women With Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnsys.2020.593581 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

Author(s):

Genevieve Z. Steiner ◽

Robert J. Barry ◽

Katherine Wassink ◽

Frances M. De Blasio ◽

Jack S. Fogarty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Pelvic Pain ◽

Chronic Pelvic Pain ◽

Performance Test ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Pain Severity ◽

Control Group ◽

Severity Scores ◽

Related Potentials

Endometriosis is a debilitating women's health condition and is the most common cause of chronic pelvic pain. Impaired cognitive control is common in chronic pain conditions, however, it has not yet been investigated in endometriosis. The aim of this study was to explore the neuronal correlates of cognitive control in women with endometriosis. Using a cross-sectional study design with data collected at a single time-point, event-related potentials were elicited during a cued continuous performance test from 20 women with endometriosis (mean age = 28.5 ± 5.2 years) and 20 age- and gender-matched controls (mean age = 28.5 ± 5.2 years). Event-related potential components were extracted and P3 component amplitudes were derived with temporal principal components analysis. Behavioral and ERP outcomes were compared between groups and subjective pain severity was correlated with ERP component amplitudes. No significant behavioral differences were seen in task performance between the groups (all p > 0.094). Target P3b (all p < 0.034) and SW (all p < 0.040), and non-target early P3a (eP3a; all p < 0.023) and late P3a (lP3a; all p < 0.035) amplitudes were smaller for the endometriosis compared to the healthy control group. Lower non-target eP3a (p < 0.001), lP3a (p = 0.013), and SW (p = 0.019) amplitudes were correlated with higher pain severity scores. Findings suggest that endometriosis-associated chronic pelvic pain is linked to alterations in stimulus-response processing and inhibitory control networks, but not impaired behavioral performance, due to compensatory neuroplastic changes in overlapping cognitive control and pain networks.

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Electrophysiological correlates of perceptual prediction error are attenuated in dyslexia

10.1101/2021.06.22.449408 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sara D. Beach ◽

Sung-Joo Lim ◽

Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez ◽

Marianna D. Eddy ◽

John D. E. Gabrieli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prediction Error ◽

High Probability ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Control Group ◽

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Stimulus Repetition ◽

Learning Abilities ◽

Wide Range ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Difference

A perceptual adaptation deficit often accompanies reading difficulty in dyslexia, manifesting in poor perceptual learning of consistent stimuli and reduced neurophysiological adaptation to stimulus repetition. However, it is not known how adaptation deficits relate to differences in feedforward or feedback processes in the brain. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to interrogate the feedforward and feedback contributions to neural adaptation as adults with and without dyslexia viewed pairs of faces and words in a paradigm that manipulated whether there was a high probability of stimulus repetition versus a high probability of stimulus change. We measured three neural dependent variables: expectation (the difference between prestimulus EEG power with and without the expectation of stimulus repetition), feedforward repetition (the difference between event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by an expected change and an unexpected repetition), and feedback-mediated prediction error (the difference between ERPs evoked by an unexpected change and an expected repetition). Expectation significantly modulated prestimulus theta- and alpha-band EEG in both groups. Unexpected repetitions of words, but not faces, also led to significant feedforward repetition effects in the ERPs of both groups. However, neural prediction error when an unexpected change occurred instead of an expected repetition was significantly weaker in dyslexia than the control group for both faces and words. These results suggest that the neural and perceptual adaptation deficits observed in dyslexia reflect the failure to effectively integrate perceptual predictions with feedforward sensory processing. In addition to reducing perceptual efficiency, the attenuation of neural prediction error signals would also be deleterious to the wide range of perceptual and procedural learning abilities that are critical for developing accurate and fluent reading skills.

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