Intersensory Attention Deficits in Schizophrenia Relate to Ongoing Sensorimotor Beta Oscillations

Overview

Journal Schizophrenia (Heidelb)

Date 2025 Feb 17

PMID 39962042

Authors

James Kenneth Moran

Daniel Senkowski

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This study tested whether intersensory attention deficits in people with schizophrenia (SZ) relate to aberrant ongoing oscillations in sensory cortices. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while individuals with schizophrenia (N = 27) and healthy controls (HC; N = 27) performed a visual-tactile target detection task. Ongoing alpha (8-12 Hz) and lower beta (13-20 Hz) band oscillations in visual and sensorimotor cortices were examined. Behavioral data suggested an intersensory attention deficit in patients. EEG data revealed stronger alpha-band oscillations for tactile vs. visual attention conditions in the visual cortex of both study groups. In the sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the tactile stimulation site, patients showed an additional intersensory attention effect in ongoing beta-band oscillations, which was negatively related to cognitive and positive symptoms of the PANSS. Our findings extend previous results from unisensory attention research and suggest that deficits in intersensory attention and alterations in sensorimotor beta oscillations are related to schizophrenia symptomatology.

References

Foxe J, Simpson G, Ahlfors S . Parieto-occipital approximately 10 Hz activity reflects anticipatory state of visual attention mechanisms. Neuroreport. 1999; 9(17):3929-33. DOI: 10.1097/00001756-199812010-00030. View

Klimesch W . α-band oscillations, attention, and controlled access to stored information. Trends Cogn Sci. 2012; 16(12):606-17. PMC: 3507158. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.10.007. View

Martinez A, Gaspar P, Hillyard S, Bickel S, Lakatos P, Dias E . Neural oscillatory deficits in schizophrenia predict behavioral and neurocognitive impairments. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015; 9:371. PMC: 4486865. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00371. View

Javitt D, Sweet R . Auditory dysfunction in schizophrenia: integrating clinical and basic features. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2015; 16(9):535-50. PMC: 4692466. DOI: 10.1038/nrn4002. View

Gebreegziabhere Y, Habatmu K, Mihretu A, Cella M, Alem A . Cognitive impairment in people with schizophrenia: an umbrella review. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2022; 272(7):1139-1155. PMC: 9508017. DOI: 10.1007/s00406-022-01416-6. View

Lee T, Girolami M, Sejnowski T . Independent component analysis using an extended infomax algorithm for mixed subgaussian and supergaussian sources. Neural Comput. 1999; 11(2):417-41. DOI: 10.1162/089976699300016719. View

Haegens S, Nacher V, Luna R, Romo R, Jensen O . α-Oscillations in the monkey sensorimotor network influence discrimination performance by rhythmical inhibition of neuronal spiking. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011; 108(48):19377-82. PMC: 3228466. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1117190108. View

Aiyer R, Novakovic V, Barkin R . A systematic review on the impact of psychotropic drugs on electroencephalogram waveforms in psychiatry. Postgrad Med. 2016; 128(7):656-64. DOI: 10.1080/00325481.2016.1218261. View

Clayton M, Yeung N, Cohen Kadosh R . The many characters of visual alpha oscillations. Eur J Neurosci. 2017; 48(7):2498-2508. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13747. View

10.

Fagerstrom K . Determinants of tobacco use and renaming the FTND to the Fagerstrom Test for Cigarette Dependence. Nicotine Tob Res. 2011; 14(1):75-8. DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntr137. View

11.

Aczel B, Palfi B, Szaszi B . Estimating the evidential value of significant results in psychological science. PLoS One. 2017; 12(8):e0182651. PMC: 5562314. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182651. View

12.

Wallwork R, Fortgang R, Hashimoto R, Weinberger D, Dickinson D . Searching for a consensus five-factor model of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2012; 137(1-3):246-50. PMC: 3351536. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2012.01.031. View

13.

Keefe R, Goldberg T, Harvey P, Gold J, Poe M, Coughenour L . The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia: reliability, sensitivity, and comparison with a standard neurocognitive battery. Schizophr Res. 2004; 68(2-3):283-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2003.09.011. View

14.

Uhlhaas P, Singer W . Abnormal neural oscillations and synchrony in schizophrenia. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010; 11(2):100-13. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2774. View

15.

Gascoyne L, Brookes M, Rathnaiah M, Ul Haq Katshu M, Koelewijn L, Williams G . Motor-related oscillatory activity in schizophrenia according to phase of illness and clinical symptom severity. Neuroimage Clin. 2020; 29:102524. PMC: 7750164. DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102524. View

16.

Morey R, Rouder J . Bayes factor approaches for testing interval null hypotheses. Psychol Methods. 2011; 16(4):406-19. DOI: 10.1037/a0024377. View

17.

Wood S, Potts G, Martin L, Kothmann D, Hall J, Ulanday J . Disruption of auditory and visual attention in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res. 2007; 156(2):105-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.04.014. View

18.

Ghorashi S, Spencer K . Attentional Load Effects on Beta Oscillations in Healthy and Schizophrenic Individuals. Front Psychiatry. 2015; 6:149. PMC: 4610136. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00149. View

19.

Jones S, Kerr C, Wan Q, Pritchett D, Hamalainen M, Moore C . Cued spatial attention drives functionally relevant modulation of the mu rhythm in primary somatosensory cortex. J Neurosci. 2010; 30(41):13760-5. PMC: 2970512. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2969-10.2010. View

20.

Friese U, Daume J, Goschl F, Konig P, Wang P, Engel A . Oscillatory brain activity during multisensory attention reflects activation, disinhibition, and cognitive control. Sci Rep. 2016; 6:32775. PMC: 5015072. DOI: 10.1038/srep32775. View