title: Slow habituation of induced gamma and beta oscillations in association with unreality experiences in schizotypy.
abstract: Highly schizotypal individuals exhibit deficits in attentional processing, in particular dysfunctional habituation. This has led to the suggestion that abnormal habituation may represent a trait marker of psychotic vulnerability. This study examined the difference between high- and low-schizotypal individuals' habituation of nonphase-locked gamma and beta-1 oscillations, with and without attention. Measures of schizotypy were obtained from 40 participants and habituation to different tones was examined over trials of three interval lengths, under conditions of attention and inattention. The data showed that all participants habituated over trials with long intervals when attending to the stimuli. However, those participants who scored high on the unreality subscale exhibited significantly less habituation relative to those with low unreality scores for the short-interval trials. Furthermore, there was no difference in the orienting response to the initial stimuli between these subgroups. These results are discussed in terms of a dysfunctional rehearsal process influencing habituation for those with high-unreality scores.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University College, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU, United Kingdom. d.j.vernon@canterbury.ac.uk
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vernon
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haenschel
authors.forename: Prabuddh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dwivedi
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gruzelier
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001244:Association; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000145:classification; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors