Objective: To study the characteristics of event-related potentials in schizophrenia patients during solution of tasks involving the vigilance, orientation, and executive control attention networks depending on the severity of positive and negative symptomatology. Materials and methods. A total of 20 patients with schizophrenia took part in the study, of whom 10 had predominantly positive symptomatology and 10 had predominantly negative symptomatology. All patients were diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (F20.0). Attention functions were assessed using the Attention Networks Test with parallel recording of event-related potentials. Differences in the amplitude and latency of the N100 potential were analyzed on presentation of different types of cue, and the P300 potential was analyzed on identification of congruent and noncongruent flankers. Results and conclusions. Comparative analysis of the N100 potential in the absence of cues and on presentation of neutral stimuli demonstrated significantly lower amplitude and greater latency in the group of patients with predominantly negative symptomatology (Cz). Amplitudes of N100 event-related potentials on presentation of central and spatial cues were significantly greater in the group of patients with predominantly positive symptomatology. Analysis of P300 potentials in lead Fz on congruent and noncongruent stimuli established that there were no differences in the amplitudes of both stimuli in the group of patients with predominantly negative symptomatology; the amplitudes of event-related potentials were significantly greater to the congruent and noncongruent stimuli in the group with predominantly positive symptomatology. Opposite flanker responses were observed in the group of patients with predominantly positive symptomatology – P300 amplitude was significantly greater on presentation of the noncongruent stimulus. Specific characteristics were established for event-related potentials describing the features of attention systems such as vigilance, orientation, and executive control.
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Translated from Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii imeni S. S. Korsakova, Vol. 122, No. 2, pp. 88–96, February, 2022.
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Pultsina, K.I., Alekhin, A.N., Petrova, E.V. et al. Effectiveness of Attention Networks and the Severity of Positive and Negative Symptomatology in Schizophrenia. Neurosci Behav Physi 52, 878–885 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-022-01312-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-022-01312-5