Chunk #16 — DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN NEUROLEPTIC-NAÏVE PATIENTS WITH RECENT-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA — Relationship between EEG alpha coherence and symptom dimensions of schizophrenia
We examined the relationship between the three symptom dimensions and EEG alpha coherence in 37 recent-onset neuroleptic-naïve, recent-onset schizophrenia patients in the resting state.[20] EEG alpha (8.5-12.5Hz) coherence was computed across 14 intra-hemispheric and 8 inter-hemispheric electrode pairs in the resting eyes closed and eyes open conditions. The relationship between the psychopathological dimension scores and coherence values was assessed using Pearson's product moment correlation with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Significant associations between higher psychomotor poverty scores and lower inter-hemispheric coherence values were found across the central (r= −0.546, P < 0.0001) and parietal (r=−0.483, P < 0.002) regions in the eyes closed condition and across central regions (r=−0.487, P < 0.002) in the eyes open condition. This finding is supportive of previous cerebral perfusion studies in schizophrenia, which suggest that a bilateral cortical hypofunction associated with deficit symptoms.[4142] Reality distortion and disorganization dimensions were not significantly correlated with intra- or inter-hemispheric coherences in both eyes closed and eyes open conditions. Again, as mentioned above, these findings await replication in larger samples of neuroleptic-naïve, recent-onset schizophrenia patients.
