Reduced P200 latency and allusive thinking: an auditory evoked potential index of a cognitive predisposition to schizophrenia?
Auditory evoked potentials were recorded in healthy medical students who were grouped according to whether they obtained a high or low score on an Object Sorting Test (OST), on which schizophrenics also obtain high scores. High-OST scoring male students compared to Low-OST scoring male students showed reduced P200 latency. This finding was replicated in a second study of medical students. The authors believe these results support the hypothesis that schizophrenic thought disorder and an equivalent loosening of thinking in nonschizophrenic populations (allusive thinking) have a neurophysiological basis in common, namely a relative weakness of inhibition operating on cortical and subcortical structures.
D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013850:Thinking