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Noise power associated with decreased task-induced variability of brain electrical activity in schizophrenia

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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In schizophrenia, both increased baseline metabolic and electroencephalographic (EEG) activities as well as decreased task-related modulation of neural dynamics have been reported. Noise power (NP) can measure the background EEG activity during task performance, and Shannon entropy (SE) is useful for quantifying the global modulation of EEG activity with a high temporal resolution. In this study, we have assessed the possible relationship between increased NP in theta and gamma bands and decreased SE modulation in 24 patients with schizophrenia and 26 controls over the parietal and central regions during a P300 task. SE modulation was calculated as the change from baseline to the active epoch (i.e., 150–550 ms following the target stimulus onset). Patients with schizophrenia displayed statistically significant higher NP values and lower SE modulation than healthy controls. We found a significant association between gamma NP and SE in all of the participants. Specifically, a NP increase in the gamma band was followed by a decrease in SE change. These results support the notion that an excess of gamma activity, unlocked to the task being performed, is accompanied by a decreased modulation of EEG activity in schizophrenia.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was supported in part by: ‘Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)’ (FIS PI1102203) and the ‘Gerencia Regional de Salud de Castilla y León’ (GRS 613/A/11) grants; ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ and FEDER under project TEC2011-22987 and by the ‘Project Cero 2011 on Ageing’ from ‘Fundación General CSIC’, ‘Obra Social La Caixa’ and CSIC; a PIF-UVA grant from the University of Valladolid to A. Bachiller; and a predoctoral scholarship from the University of Salamanca and Santander Bank to V. Suazo.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Valladolid, Avenida de Ramón y Cajal, 7, 48005, Valladolid, Spain

    Vicente Molina

  2. Neuroscience Institute of Castilla y León (INCYL), University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Vicente Molina, Vanessa Suazo, Jesús Poza & Roberto Hornero

  3. Biomedical Engineering Group, Department T.S.C.I.T., E.T.S. Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Alejandro Bachiller, Alba Lubeiro, Jesús Poza & Roberto Hornero

  4. Instituto de Investigación en Matemáticas (IMUVA), University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Jesús Poza & Roberto Hornero

Authors
  1. Vicente Molina
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  2. Alejandro Bachiller
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  3. Vanessa Suazo
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  4. Alba Lubeiro
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  5. Jesús Poza
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  6. Roberto Hornero
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Correspondence to Vicente Molina.

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Molina, V., Bachiller, A., Suazo, V. et al. Noise power associated with decreased task-induced variability of brain electrical activity in schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 266, 55–61 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0569-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0569-6

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