![]() ![]() ![]() Sensory gating describes neurophysiological processes of filtering out redundant or unnecessary stimuli during information processing, which potentially protects higher-order functions from being overloaded ( 3, 4). The combined changes ultimately lead to behavioral, cognitive, and emotional deficits, which are the clinical hallmarks of the disease. Before the onset of cognitive and behavioral problems, a complex cascade of pathophysiological processes in the brains of schizophrenia patients had been noted, including alterations of gene expression, neurochemical-metabolic disturbances, alteration of brain connectivity, and impaired information processing ( 2). Sklar AL, Ren X, Chlpka L, Curtis M, Coffman BA, Salisbury DF.Schizophrenia is a brain disorder characterized by abnormal mental functions, including cognitive symptoms ( 1). Salisbury, senior author of the study.ĭiminished auditory cortex dynamic range and its clinical correlates in first episode psychosis Our task now is to discover what kinds of novel interventions might improve this sensory deficit,” said Dr. This means that these individuals have difficulty comprehending both verbal and non-verbal information in language, which will make effective real-world functioning much harder. Further, the subtle changes in inflection that convey emotional emphasis are likely not well perceived. “When individuals first experience psychosis symptoms, their auditory system does not track sound intensity well, so everything may seem muted. The paper published in Schizophrenia Bulletin is the first to localize the cortical sources of this sensory activity using MEG in individuals with early symptoms of schizophrenia, and first to demonstrate a blunted scaling of this response to stimulus intensity. The scientists recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) from study participants (additionally including 40 unaffected comparison participants) during binaural presentation of tones at three intensities. Sklar, Brian Coffman, PhD (Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), and Dean Salisbury, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry), examined neurophysiological responses to pure tones among 35 individuals with schizophrenia following their first psychotic episode, to assess auditory cortex dynamic range and its potential clinical consequences at the onset of schizophrenia. ![]() ![]() Given the complexity of stimuli encountered in real-world settings, deficits in this adaptive process can have profound impacts on social and occupational functioning,” said Alfredo Sklar, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), first author of a study recently published in Schizophrenia Bulletin. “While auditory sensory deficits have been investigated in schizophrenia, little work has been done to understand how the brain adapts to changes in the auditory environment, particularly during early stages of the illness. In the auditory domain, an inability to perceive variations in acoustic features (e.g., pitch and intensity) has been associated with impaired emotional processing and functional decline in schizophrenia. Reductions in neurophysiological markers of both auditory and visual early perceptual processing suggest a faulty stimulus registration mechanism in schizophrenia that, in turn, compounds higher-order cognitive deficits. Despite the prevailing focus on executive functioning impairments as primary contributors to clinical outcomes in individuals with psychosis, the contribution of sensory disruptions to disease morbidity in psychosis is receiving increasing attention among scientists who study schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. ![]()
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