title: Disturbances in Response Inhibition and Emotional Processing as Potential Pathways to Violence in Schizophrenia: A High-Density Event-Related Potential Study.
abstract: Increased susceptibility to emotional triggers and poor response inhibition are important in the etiology of violence in schizophrenia. Our goal was to evaluate abnormalities in neurophysiological mechanisms underlying response inhibition and emotional processing in violent patients with schizophrenia (VS) and 3 different comparison groups: nonviolent patients (NV), healthy controls (HC) and nonpsychotic violent subjects (NPV).
  
  
  
  We recorded high-density Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and behavioral responses during an Emotional Go/NoGo Task in 35 VS, 24 NV, 28 HC and 31 NPV subjects. We also evaluated psychiatric symptoms and impulsivity.
  
  
  
  The neural and behavioral deficits in violent patients were most pronounced when they were presented with negative emotional stimuli: They responded more quickly than NV when they made commission errors (ie, failure of inhibition), and evidenced N2 increases and P3 decreases. In contrast, NVs showed little change in reaction time or ERP amplitude with emotional stimuli. These N2 and P3 amplitude changes in VSs showed a strong association with greater impulsivity. Besides these group specific changes, VSs shared deficits with NV, mostly N2 reduction, and with violent nonpsychotic subjects, particularly P3 reduction.
  
  
  
  Negative affective triggers have a strong impact on violent patients with schizophrenia which may have both behavioral and neural manifestations. The resulting activation could interfere with response inhibition. The affective disruption of response inhibition, identified in this study, may index an important pathway to violence in schizophrenia and suggest new modes of treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY; These authors contributed equally and share first authorship. krakow@nki.rfmh.org.
authors.forename: Menahem I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Krakowski
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Neurosciences, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY; These authors contributed equally and share first authorship.
authors.forename: Pierfilippo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Sanctis
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Neurosciences, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY;
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Foxe
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY;
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hoptman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY;
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nolan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY;
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamiel
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Pal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Czobor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014754:Violence
keywords: aggression; electrophysiology; emotional triggers; impulsivity; response inhibition