title: Functional abnormalities in the cortical processing of sound complexity and musical consonance in schizophrenia: evidence from an evoked potential study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies have demonstrated functional and structural temporal lobe abnormalities located close to the auditory cortical regions in schizophrenia. The goal of this study was to determine whether functional abnormalities exist in the cortical processing of musical sound in schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve schizophrenic patients and twelve age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited, and participants listened to a random sequence of two kinds of sonic entities, intervals (tritones and perfect fifths) and chords (atonal chords, diminished chords, and major triads), of varying degrees of complexity and consonance. The perception of musical sound was investigated by the auditory evoked potentials technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed that schizophrenic patients exhibited significant reductions in the amplitudes of the N1 and P2 components elicited by musical stimuli, to which consonant sounds contributed more significantly than dissonant sounds. Schizophrenic patients could not perceive the dissimilarity between interval and chord stimuli based on the evoked potentials responses as compared with the healthy controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provided electrophysiological evidence of functional abnormalities in the cortical processing of sound complexity and music consonance in schizophrenia. The preliminary findings warrant further investigations for the underlying mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuan-Yi
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ching-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Ching-I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yung-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sheng-Fu
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*