title: Increased psychophysiological parameters of attention in non-psychotic individuals with auditory verbal hallucinations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Schizophrenia is associated with aberrant event-related potentials (ERPs) such as reductions in P300, processing negativity and mismatch negativity amplitudes. These deficits may be related to the propensity of schizophrenia patients to experience auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). However, AVH are part of extensive and variable symptomatology in schizophrenia. For this reason non-psychotic individuals with AVH as an isolated symptom provide an excellent opportunity to investigate this relationship.
  
  
  METHODS
  P300 waveforms, processing negativity and mismatch negativity were examined with an auditory oddball paradigm in 18 non-psychotic individuals with AVH and 18 controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  P300 amplitude was increased in the AVH group as compared to controls, reflecting superior effortful attention. A trend in the same direction was found for processing negativity. No significant differences were found for mismatch negativity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrary to our expectations, non-psychotic individuals with AVH show increased rather than decreased psychophysiological measures of effortful attention compared to healthy controls, refuting a pivotal role of decreased effortful attention in the pathophysiology of AVH.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Division, University Medical Center Utrecht and Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, Utrecht, The Netherlands. R.vanlutterveld@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Remko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Lutterveld
authors.forename: Bob
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oranje
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kemner
authors.forename: Lucija
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abramovic
authors.forename: Anne E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.forename: Marco P M
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Boks
authors.forename: Birte Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Glenthøj
authors.forename: René S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.forename: Iris E C
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology