Schizotypal traits and N400 in healthy subjects

Abstract

We examined whether correlations previously found between symptoms of schizophrenia patients and the amplitude of an event-related potential (ERP), the N400, could be also found between schizotypal experiences of healthy subjects and the N400. We chose a semantic categorization task previously used with patients. Schizotypal experiences were measured with the schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ). The effects of the other factors were controlled for when assessing the correlations between each SPQ factor and N400s. These correlations were assessed at each electrode site to see whether their distribution on the scalp follows that of the N400 effect. Disorganization and interpersonal scores were found to correlate with ERPs in the N400 time window, as previously reported for the comparable symptoms of patients. However, the scalp distribution of these correlations differed from that of the N400 effect.