title: A comparative study of event-related coupling patterns during an auditory oddball task in schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this research is to explore the coupling patterns of brain dynamics during an auditory oddball task in schizophrenia (SCH).
  
  
  METHODS
  Event-related electroencephalographic (ERP) activity was recorded from 20 SCH patients and 20 healthy controls. The coupling changes between auditory response and pre-stimulus baseline were calculated in conventional EEG frequency bands (theta, alpha, beta-1, beta-2 and gamma), using three coupling measures: coherence, phase-locking value and Euclidean distance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed a statistically significant increase from baseline to response in theta coupling and a statistically significant decrease in beta-2 coupling in controls. No statistically significant changes were observed in SCH patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings support the aberrant salience hypothesis, since SCH patients failed to change their coupling dynamics between stimulus response and baseline when performing an auditory cognitive task. This result may reflect an impaired communication among neural areas, which may be related to abnormal cognitive functions.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Group, E.T.S. Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bachiller
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poza
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Suazo
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hornero
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D003071:Cognition; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity