Diagnostic specificity and familiality of early versus late evoked potentials to auditory paired stimuli across the schizophrenia-bipolar psychosis spectrum

Abstract

Disrupted sensory processing is a core feature of psychotic disorders. Auditory paired stimuli (PS) evoke a complex neural response, but it is uncertain which aspects reflect shared and/or distinct liability for the most common severe psychoses, schizophrenia (SZ) and psychotic bipolar disorder (BDP). Evoked time-voltage/time-frequency domain responses quantified with EEG during a typical PS paradigm (S1-S2) were compared among proband groups (SZ [n = 232], BDP [181]), their relatives (SZrel [259], BDPrel [220]), and healthy participants (H [228]). Early S1-evoked responses were reduced in SZ and BDP, while later/S2 abnormalities showed SZ/SZrel and BDP/BDPrel specificity. Relatives' effects were absent/small despite significant familiality of the entire auditorineural response. This pattern suggests general and divergent biological pathways associated with psychosis, yet may reflect complications with conditioning solely on clinical phenomenology.

Keywords: EEG/ERP; Genetics; Psychopathological; Sensation/Perception.