Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in social cognitive abilities, such as recognizing facial emotions. However, the relationships between specific deficits of emotion recognition and with clusters of psychotic remain unclear.

To explore whether facial emotion recognition was associated with severity of symptoms and to which presentation of psychotic symptoms.

Facial emotion recognition (FER) were evaluated in 58 patients with stable schizophrenia with a newly validated FER task constructed from photographs of the face of a famous Tunisian actress representing the Ekman's six basic emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, sadness, fear, and surprise). Symptomatology evaluation comprised the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) and the Clinical Global Impressions Scale Improvement and severity (CGI).

Patients who failed to identify anger had significantly higher scores in hyperactivity item (P < 0.0001). The patients who had a difficulty to identify sadness had more grandiosity (P ≤ 0.002). The impairment in happiness recognition was correlated with hallucination (P = 0.007) and delusion (P = 0.024) items. Incapacity to identify fear was associated to lack of judgment and insight (P = 0.004).

Deficits in recognition of specific facial emotions may reflect severity of psychiatric symptoms. They may be related to specific clusters of psychotic symptoms, which need to be confirmed in further studies.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cognitive impairments, both related with poor outcomes in schizophrenia, are common in patients with this disorder. MetS has been associated with cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, but there is no general consensus regarding the description of various domains of neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia related to MetS.

The goal of this study was to assess cognitive functions in female patients with schizophrenia complicated by metabolic syndrome compared to those with schizophrenia without metabolic syndrome.

Fifty-four female patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were divided into two groups: MetS group (MetS+) and non-MetS group (MetS−). Cognitive functioning were investigated using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS).

Twenty-seven (52%) patients with schizophrenia met criteria for the MetS diagnosis. Mean age of patients was 40.80. Patients from MetS+ group performed significantly worse on verbal memory (P = 0.005), executive functions (P = 0.028) and motor speed (P = 0.035) as compared to MetS− group. Patients with schizophrenia who were hypertensive showed cognitive impairments in 2 domains of cognition: attention and speed of information processing (P = 0.004) and verbal fluency (P = 0.001). Patients with hypertriglyceridemia performed significantly worse on verbal memory (P = 0.005). Motor speed was associated with waist circumference (P = 0.02).

At a mean age of 40 years old, female patients with schizophrenia and metabolic syndrome show difficulties in more domains of cognitive function compared to female patients with schizophrenia without metabolic syndrome. Our findings suggest a link between cognition and metabolic syndrome in female patients with schizophrenia.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Medication non-adherence presents a considerable problem in patients with schizophrenia. Cognitive and executive functions can affect adherence. The association between medication non-adherence and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is under investigated with limited and conflicting research data.

To prospectively assess the rate of drug adherence among a sample of patients with schizophrenia and to compare the cognitive and executive functions between adherent and non-adherent patients.

One hundred and nine patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to the DSM-IV classification were initially assessed by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and six months later by the Brief Adherence Rating Scale (BARS).

Among the patients, 68.8% were non-adherent to their antipsychotic medication. Adherent patients (31.2%) had significantly higher mean scores for the total, verbal and performance IQ. Moreover, they had significantly higher mean scores in most of WMS subtests (orientation, information, verbal paired association, digit span, visual memory span), and higher mean scores for; total correct, conceptual level response, percentage and categories completed on the WSCT subscales (P < 0.0001). Whereas the non-adherent group had higher mean scores in; trials administered, total errors, perseverative responses, and perseverative errors (P < 0.0001). In a step regression analysis, digit span, conceptualization, total and percentage of errors were putative predictors of non-adherence to antipsychotic medications.

Cognitive deficits, especially verbal memory and executive functions were the strongest patients’ related factors associated with non-adherence to medication. Psychiatrists should consider possible cognitive factors influencing adherence to enable offering proper interventions.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The relation between C-reactive protein (CRP), depression and antidepressant consumption has been well explored in major depressive disorders but not in schizophrenia, which has a high rate of depression comorbidity. The objectives of this study were:

– to determine the prevalence of abnormal CRP levels, depression and antidepressant consumption in a multi-center community-dwelling sample of subjects with schizophrenia;

– to determine the association between abnormal CRP levels, depression and antidepressant consumption in schizophrenia.

Two hundred and nineteen stable patients with schizophrenia (mean age = 31.6 years, 75.3% male gender) were systematically included in the multicentre network of FondaMental Expert Center for schizophrenia (FACE-SZ) and assessed with Calgary Depression Scale for depression. High sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) was measured with an assay using nephelometry (Dade Behring). Abnormal CRP level was defined by levels > 3 mg/L. Current medication was recorded.

Overall, 63 subjects (28.8%) were found to have abnormal CRP levels, 43 (20.1%) received a diagnosis of comorbid current depression, and 51 (31.9%) had ongoing antidepressant treatment. In univariate analysis, abnormal CRP levels were found to be significantly associated with metabolic syndrome (P = 0.0011) and with antidepressant consumption (P = 0.01), while depression, psychotic symptomatology, age of onset, illness duration, sociodemographic characteristics, current tobacco or cannabis status were not (all P > 0.05).

In a multivariate model, abnormal CRP was highly associated with antidepressant consumption independently of other confounding variables (adjusted odd ratio = 2.9, 95% confidence interval 1.2–6.8).

Abnormal CRP levels in schizophrenia were found to be associated with antidepressant consumption, but not with depression.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Children born by cesarean section (“c-birth”) are known to have different microbiota and a natural history of different disorders including allergy, asthma and overweight compared to vaginally born (“v-birth”) children. C-birth is not known to increase the risk of schizophrenia (SZ), but to be associated with an earlier age at onset. To further explore possible links between c-birth and SZ, we compared clinical and biological characteristics of c-born SZ patients compared to v-born ones.

Four hundred and fifty-four stable community-dwelling SZ patients (mean age = 32.4 years, 75.8% male gender) were systematically included in the multicentre network of FondaMental Expert Center for schizophrenia (FACE-SZ).

Overall, 49 patients (10.8%) were c-born. These patients had a mean age at schizophrenia onset of 21.9 ± 6.7 years, a mean duration of illness of 10.5 ± 8.7 years and a mean PANSS total score of 70.9 ± 18.7. None of these variables was significantly associated with c-birth. Multivariate analysis showed that c-birth remained associated with lower peripheral inflammation (aOR = 0.07; 95% CI 0.009–0.555, P = 0.012) and lower premorbid ability (aOR = 0.945; 95% CI 0.898–0.994, P = 0.03) independently of age, age at illness onset, sex, education level, psychotic and mood symptomatology, antipsychotic treatment, tobacco consumption, birth weight and mothers suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Altogether, literature data as well as our results suggest that c-birth is associated with lower weight gain and lower inflammation in schizophrenia, which could be explained by microbiota differences. Further studies should take into account c-birth when exploring the role of microbiota in SZ patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The aim of this study is to explore connectivity of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPC) by functional magnetic resonance imaging during resting state, in subjects affected by schizophrenia and unaffected relatives.

We recruited a group of 29 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, who were treated with atypical antipsychotics, who are and were clinically stable in the last 6 months and had an illness duration range from 5 up to 15 years. We also recruited a group of 23 unaffected relatives, without history of other mental, neurological or somatic disease and a group of 37 healthy volunteers. No subject in any of the three groups met criteria for substance use disorders.

All three groups were clinically evaluated, and a functional magnetic resonance during Resting State was performed.

Functional images were reoriented to the first scan, normalized to the MNI EPI template and smoothed with an 8 mm Gaussian kernel, with SPM. The CONN-FMRI Toolbox v1.2 was used to create individual subject seed-to-voxel connectivity maps, to the corresponding seeds of the default mode network.

Fig. 1.

Our results show a significant increase in connectivity between LDLPC and anterior prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and somatosensory association areas, especially between patients and controls. It is noteworthy to mention that we found a significant decrease in connectivity between LDLPC and supramarginal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus and somatosensory association areas between unaffected relatives and controls.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Brexpiprazole is a serotonin-dopamine activity modulator that is a partial agonist at 5-HT1A and dopamine D2 receptors at similar potency, and an antagonist at 5-HT2A and noradrenaline alpha1B/2C receptors.

Evaluating the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of flexible doses of brexpiprazole compared with placebo in patients with acute schizophrenia.

Primary endpoint was change from baseline to week 6 in PANSS total score and key secondary endpoint was change from baseline to week 6 in CGI-S score.

Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, active reference, trial (NCT01810380). Hospitalized patients were randomized to brexpiprazole (2 to 4 mg/day), placebo, or quetiapine extended release (400 to 800 mg/day) for 6 weeks. Quetiapine was included as an active reference. Changes from baseline were analyzed using an MMRM approach.

Mean change in PANSS total score was −20.0 and −15.9 in the brexpiprazole (n = 150) and placebo (n = 159) groups, respectively (P = 0.056). Sensitivity analyses suggested treatment effect (e.g., ANCOVA, LOCF: P = 0.025; ANCOVA, OC: P = 0.026). Mean change in PANSS total score (−24.0) with quetiapine (n = 150) was significantly greater than that with placebo (P < 0.001), demonstrating sensitivity of the assay. Brexpiprazole separated from placebo on the mean change in CGI-S score (−1.2 vs. −0.9, P = 0.014). The proportion of patients reporting TEAEs were similar between the brexpiprazole and placebo treatment groups (54% versus 54.7%).

Treatment with brexpiprazole showed a clinically meaningful improvement in patients with acute schizophrenia. While the difference between brexpiprazole and placebo only approached statistical significance, sensitivity analyses and secondary endpoints supported a treatment effect of brexpiprazole.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Self-stigma is the maladaptive psychosocial phenomenon that can affect the patient's self-image, may lead to dysphoria, social isolation, reduced adherence and quality of life. Maladaptive coping strategies may adversely disturb the overall functioning of psychiatric patients.

Thinking about coping strategies and self-stigma in practice may play a significant role in understanding patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, especially for mental health professionals. Focus on coping strategies could be a useful concept in supportive and educational therapy to help patients in using more adaptive coping strategies and decrease their self-stigma.

The aim of this study was to determine the relation between coping strategies and the self-stigma among outpatients with schizophrenia and related disorders.

Stress Coping Style Questionnaire (SVF-78), Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) and severity of the disorder (measured by Clinical Global Impression objective and subjective form) were assessed.

One hundred and four patients suffering from schizophrenia (n = 67), schizoaffective disorder (n = 30), polymorphic psychotic disorder (n = 3), schizotypal disorder (n = 2) and delusional disorder (n = 2) were included in the study. The results showed that there was a high positive correlation between negative coping and self-stigma, and the negative correlation between positive strategies and the overall score of self-stigma. Stepwise regression analysis showed that negative coping (especially resignation), subjective severity SubjCGI and positive coping strategies (especially positive self-instruction) explains 52.8% of the overall score variance of self-stigma (Tables 1–3).

This study revealed that there is a connection between self-stigma and coping strategies in patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The effects of long-term antipsychotic medication use on structural brain changes in psychoses are still unknown. Severity and duration of illness are key confounders when evaluating antipsychotic effects on brain morphology.

Understanding the role of antipsychotic medication on brain morphology in psychoses.

To analyze whether cumulative lifetime or current antipsychotic medication dose relates to brain morphology in schizophrenia and other psychoses at age of 43 years.

Forty-four schizophrenia cases and 35 with other psychoses from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 were scanned on a 1.5T GE Signa scanner and brain structures were extracted using volBrain automated volumetry system (http://volbrain.upv.es). Data of antipsychotic medication were collected from medical records and interviews. We used linear regression model to analyze the effect of antipsychotic medication on brain volumes and used intracranial volume and onset age as covariates. We also performed additional analyses adding psychotic symptoms (PANSS Total score) as a covariate.

Higher lifetime and current dose associated to left lateral ventricle increase (b = 0.33, P = 0.033; b = 0.307, P = 0.042, respectively) and right and left accumbens decrease (b = −0.405, P = 0.013, b = −0.404, P = 0.010; b = −0.302, P = 0.027, b = −0.282, P = 0.036, respectively) in schizophrenia but not in other psychoses. When PANSS was added to the model, the findings remained regarding right and left accumbens, but not regarding left lateral ventricle.

It seems that antipsychotic medication affects the brain in schizophrenia, but not in the heterogeneous group of other psychoses. In schizophrenia, brain changes associated to antipsychotic medication cannot be explained by illness duration or symptom severity.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

To observe the association between adverse effects of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs in female schizophrenic patients and dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2), cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6, estrogen receptor-α gene (ESR1).

The subjects were 89 female schizophrenic patients (age range from 18 to 40) who had been taking the same medication for more than 3 months. The adverse effects with regard to hyperprolactinemia were studied through the blood collection at one point of the subjects. Furthermore, the effect of DRD2, CYP2D6, ESR1 on serum prolactin level and amenorrhea was analyzed.

There was a lower concentration of E2 in patients with amenorrhea. In addition, an inverse correlation was found between prolactin level and E2 level. Hyperprolactinemia (HPRL) was commonly found in patients who had been using risperidone, amisulpride and paliperidone; in contrast, HPRL was found less in those who had been taking aripiprazole, olanzapine, ziprasidone, clozapine and quetiapine. Moreover, female schizophrenic patients who had DRD2 Taq1 A1 allele had twice the chance of developing amenorrhea than those who did not have A1 allele. Female schizophrenic patients who had Taq1 A1 allele also had 48% higher concentration level of prolactin than those who did not have A1 allele. There was no association found between prolactin and CYP2D6 or ESR1.

Female schizophrenic patients who had DRD2 Taq1 A1 allele showed high prolactin level and high-frequency of HPRL. Therefore, reducing the use of prolactin-elevating antipsychotics for female schizophrenic patients with DRD2 Taq1 A1 allele would be one method minimizing the adverse effects of drug-induced hyperprolactinemia.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Rats are social animals that produce high-frequency whistles said to reflect their underlying affective state. Injecting rats with a glutamate agonist (domoic acid) at a sensitive period of brain development, models aspects of schizophrenia. This is known as the neonatal DOM model.

We investigated whether DOM rats display altered social behaviour – as seen in patients with schizophrenia – using their high-frequency whistles as a proxy for the emotional valence of social situations.

We used 19 male Sprague Dawley rats, injected with either a low-dose of domoic acid or saline at postnatal days 8 to 14. The social behaviour of the rats was investigated at four levels:

– anticipation of social interaction;

– dyadic encounter;

– three-chamber test;

– tickling.

Tests were carried out at postnatal days 34 to 40 and 50 to 56. Rat whistles were recorded on all days of testing.

In progress.

The interest in rat whistles as a supplement to traditional behavioural tests has increased. New software allows for detailed qualitative analysis of the whistle subtypes and thus new complexity to their interpretation. This study can help unravel information encoded in the whistles and shed light on the social behaviour of the DOM rat thus investigating it is applicability as a model of schizophrenia.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Intellectual functioning in schizophrenia has been associated with genetic vulnerability and obstetric complications.

The aim of this study was to assess:

– the incidence of complications during pregnancy, labor and delivery;

– the association of OCs with general intellectual ability in two groups: patients with schizophrenia and their healthy siblings.

Forty-two patients with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV and 43 their healthy siblings were included in the study and examined using MINI and WAIS-R. Their mothers were interviewed to gather data on OCs. The ‘midwife protocol’ of Parnas et al. was used to quantify the presence and entity of OCs.

Asphyxia, mother's serious illness during pregnancy, premature delivery with weight < 2500 g, labor time > 48 h, infarcts in the placenta and eclampsia were statistically more frequent in schizophrenic group. OCs were more common in individuals with a family history. The two investigated groups were different in the following WAIS-R subtests: comprehension (P = 0.018), block design (P = 0.0001), digit symbol (P = 0.001), as well as in performance IQ and total IQ. In the patient group, correlations between OCs indexes and WAIS-R results include all intelligence quotients (verbal, performance, total IQ) and 5 WAIS-R subtests, while in the sibling group: verbal and total IQ and 2 subtests. The correlation between Vocabulary subtest and OCs was the strongest in both groups.

OCs may interact with genetic vulnerability to increase the risk of schizophrenia and have been associated with cognitive deficits in the patient group.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

A number of authors have hypothesized that psychotic patients who consume cannabis constitute a differentiated subgroup of patients that have better cognitive and social skills, necessary to engage in illegal drug consumption, than non-using patients.

Given that the prevalence, and patterns, of cannabis use are culturally driven, we wanted to study first-episode psychosis (FEP) cannabis-using and non-using patients coming from different European countries as part of the EUGEI-STUDY.

We tested the hypothesis of better premorbid social adjustment in cannabis-using FEP patients, by comparing them to FEP non cannabis users and to their respective healthy controls.

A total of 1745 people (746 cases; 999 controls) completed the assessment for premorbid adjustment [Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS)] and cannabis use (CEQ-Revised). We first extracted the Premorbid Social Adjustment Factor (PSA) from PAS and then performedlinear mixed models with PSA as dependent variable and cannabis lifetime (Yes/No) and subject status (Cases/Controls) as independent variables. We then considered “Country” as random intercept.

Across all countries, PSA scores were better in patients who had smoked cannabis in their lifetime than patients who had not (P = 0.009). The difference in PSA score between cannabis users and non-users was significantly greater in cases than controls (P = 0.038). The relationship between PSA, cannabis lifetime (Yes/No) and subject status among nations (random intercept) is shown on Fig. 1.

Cannabis-using psychotic patients show better premorbid social adjustment than non-using patients, across 5 European countries.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Despite patients with schizophrenia showed the deficits in the fronto-temporal and thalamo-frontal connectivity, the white matter connectivity in patients with schizotypal personality disorder had not been systemically investigated.

This study involved 40 neuroleptic-naïve patients with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), 60 patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), and 100 healthy controls (HC), and scanned on the 3T MRI scanner. Probablistic tractography was performed using the FATCAT software in AFNI. The target brain regions (bilateral lateral frontal, medial frontal, orbitofrontal, temporal and thalamus) were extracted from the automated segmentation and cortical parcellation. Cross-sectional comparisons in mean fractional anisotropy (FA) performed on the thalamo-lateral frontal, thalamo-medial frontal, thalamo-orbitofrontal, lateral frontal-temporal and orbitofrontal-temporal pathway. We also analyzed the relationship between the white matter pathway and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and GAF.

The diffusion tensor imaging showed that SCZ and SPD had decreased FA in the left thalamo-orbitofrontal pathway. However, SPD showed no alteration in the fronto-temporal pathway, despite SCZ showed decreased FA in the left temporo-orbitofrontal pathway. In SCZ, there were significant correlations between FA value in the left temporo-orbitofrontal pathway and negative symptoms score in PANSS and GAF score. However, SPD showed the trend level relationship between the GAF score and FA value in the left temporo-orbitofrontal pathway.

These results suggest that the deficits in thalamo-frontal connectivity may be a trait marker of schizophrenia spectrum disorder, and the deficits in fronto-temporal connectivity may play a key role towards the vulnerability of psychosis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Schizoaffective disorder (SD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. While SD has been extensively studied in the past, the contemporary data for impact of SD on cost of hospitalization are largely lacking.

We queried the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) dataset between 1998–2011 using the ICD-9 codes. Severity of comorbid conditions was defined by Deyo modification of Charlson comorbidity index. Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and secondary outcome was total charges for hospitalization. Using SAS 9.2, Chi2 test, t-test and Cochran-Armitage test were used to test significance.

A total of 4,66,800 patients were analyzed; 50.90% were female and 49.10% male (P < 0.0001); 61.15% were white, 25.97% black and 12.88% of other race (P < 0.0001). Rate of hospitalization increased from 13,035.05/million to 26,703.21/million from 1998–2011. Overall mortality was 0.50% and mean cost of hospitalization was 20,995.19$. The in-hospital mortality increased from 0.46% to 0.50% (P < 0.0001) and mean cost of hospitalization increased from 11,504.94$ to 31,460.67$. Total spending on SD related admissions increased from $1.2 billion/year to $6.6 billion/year.

While mortality has slightly increased from 1998 to 2011, the cost has significantly increased from $1.2 billion/year to $6.6 billion/year which leads to an estimated $5.4 billion/year additional burden to US health care system. In the era of cost conscious care, preventing SD related hospitalization could save billions of dollars every year. Focused efforts are needed to establish preventive measures for SD related hospitalization.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Schizophrenia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. While schizophrenia has been extensively studied in the past, the contemporary data for impact of schizophrenia on cost of hospitalization are largely lacking.

We queried the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) dataset between 1998–2011 using the ICD-9 codes. Severity of comorbid conditions was defined by Deyo modification of Charlson comorbidity index. Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and secondary outcome was total charges for hospitalization. Using SAS 9.2, Chi2 test, t-test and Cochran-Armitage test were used to test significance.

A total of 443,659 patients were analyzed; 38.78% were female and 61.22% were male (P < 0.0001); 48.19% were white, 35.30% black and 16.51% of other race (P < 0.0001). Rate of hospitalization increased from 56,768.47/million to 79,44466/million from 1998–2011. Overall mortality was 0.70% and mean cost of hospitalization was 23,568.47$. The in-hospital mortality decreased from 0.75% to 0.73% (P < 0.0001) and mean cost of hospitalization increased from 12,775.64$ to 36,768.58$. Total spending on schizophrenia related admissions have increased from $1.75 billion/year $6.23 billion/year.

While mortality has slightly decreased from 1998 to 2011, the cost has significantly increased from $1.75 billion/year to $6.23 billion/year which leads to an estimated $4.48 billion/year additional burden to US health care system. In the era of cost conscious care, preventing schizophrenia related hospitalization could save billions of dollars every year. Focused efforts are needed to establish preventive measures for schizophrenia related hospitalization.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

It is hypothesized that the event-related potentials are generated by different electrophysiological mechanisms, i.e., event-related power increase and enhanced degree of phase-locking over trial. The study aimed to characterize the relative contribution of these mechanisms to the ERP in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ).

One hundred and fifteen chronic stabilized SCZ and 62 healthy controls (HC) recruited to the study of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses were included. Scalp potentials were recorded during a standard auditory oddball task. Stimulus-locked segments were extracted for all standard trials and correctly hit target trials. Trials contaminated by other artifacts were rejected. For each subject and stimulus type the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) and the inter-trial-coherence (ITC) were computed to assess event-related power increase and inter-trial phase-locking. The two groups were compared using Student's t-test followed by Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.

SCZ presented a reduced amplitude of both N100 and P3b. For both standard and target stimuli, at Cz and Pz, ERSP was reduced in SCZ in the delta-theta band (from 0 up to 400 ms). The ITC index, at the same channels, was reduced in SCZ in the delta band for standard stimuli (from 0 to 300 ms), and in both delta and theta bands for target stimuli (from 300 to 400 ms).

Our results indicate that alterations of both mechanisms are involved in N100 and P3b amplitude reduction observed in SCZ. Inter-trial phase-locking abnormalities for N100 were limited to the delta band, while for P3b involved delta and theta frequencies.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.