TY - JOUR
T1 - Disrupted auditory N1, theta power and coherence suppression to willed speech in people with schizophrenia
AU - Griffiths, Oren
AU - Jack, Bradley N.
AU - Pearson, Daniel
AU - Elijah, Ruth
AU - Mifsud, Nathan
AU - Han, Nathan
AU - Libesman, Sol
AU - Rita Barreiros, Ana
AU - Turnbull, Luke
AU - Balzan, Ryan
AU - Le Pelley, Mike
AU - Harris, Anthony
AU - Whitford, Thomas J.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - The phenomenon of sensory self-suppression - also known as sensory attenuation - occurs when a person generates a perceptible stimulus (such as a sound) by performing an action (such as speaking). The sensorimotor control system is thought to actively predict and then suppress the vocal sound in the course of speaking, resulting in lowered cortical responsiveness when speaking than when passively listening to an identical sound. It has been hypothesized that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from a reduction in self-suppression due to a disruption of predictive mechanisms required to anticipate and suppress a specific, self-generated sound. It has further been hypothesized that this suppression is evident primarily in theta band activity. Fifty-one people, half of whom had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were asked to repeatedly utter a single syllable, which was played back to them concurrently over headphones while EEG was continuously recorded. In other conditions, recordings of the same spoken syllables were played back to participants while they passively listened, or were played back with their onsets preceded by a visual cue. All participants experienced these conditions with their voice artificially shifted in pitch and also with their unaltered voice. Suppression was measured using event-related potentials (N1 component), theta phase coherence and power. We found that suppression was generally reduced on all metrics in the patient sample, and when voice alteration was applied. We additionally observed reduced theta coherence and power in the patient sample across all conditions. Visual cueing affected theta coherence only. In aggregate, the results suggest that sensory self-suppression of theta power and coherence is disrupted in schizophrenia.
AB - The phenomenon of sensory self-suppression - also known as sensory attenuation - occurs when a person generates a perceptible stimulus (such as a sound) by performing an action (such as speaking). The sensorimotor control system is thought to actively predict and then suppress the vocal sound in the course of speaking, resulting in lowered cortical responsiveness when speaking than when passively listening to an identical sound. It has been hypothesized that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from a reduction in self-suppression due to a disruption of predictive mechanisms required to anticipate and suppress a specific, self-generated sound. It has further been hypothesized that this suppression is evident primarily in theta band activity. Fifty-one people, half of whom had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were asked to repeatedly utter a single syllable, which was played back to them concurrently over headphones while EEG was continuously recorded. In other conditions, recordings of the same spoken syllables were played back to participants while they passively listened, or were played back with their onsets preceded by a visual cue. All participants experienced these conditions with their voice artificially shifted in pitch and also with their unaltered voice. Suppression was measured using event-related potentials (N1 component), theta phase coherence and power. We found that suppression was generally reduced on all metrics in the patient sample, and when voice alteration was applied. We additionally observed reduced theta coherence and power in the patient sample across all conditions. Visual cueing affected theta coherence only. In aggregate, the results suggest that sensory self-suppression of theta power and coherence is disrupted in schizophrenia.
KW - EEG
KW - Electrophysiology
KW - Psychosis
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - Sensorimotor control
KW - Sensory perception
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144376798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DE150100667
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DP140104394
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DP200103288
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DE220100739
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/NHMRC/1069487
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/NHMRC/2004067
U2 - 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103290
DO - 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103290
M3 - Article
C2 - 36535137
AN - SCOPUS:85144376798
SN - 2213-1582
VL - 37
JO - NeuroImage: Clinical
JF - NeuroImage: Clinical
M1 - 103290
ER -