Analysis of Paradoxical Neurophysiological Reactions at Different Stages of the Perception of Negative Emotional Stimuli in Schizophrenia Patients

• Published in: Neuroscience and behavioral physiology Vol. 51; no. 7; pp. 985 - 992
• Main Authors: Strelets, V. B., Rodionov, G. I., Nurbekov, M. K., Ushakov, V. L., Arkhipov, A. Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Emotions; Event-related potentials; Latency; Mental disorders; Neural networks; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Schizophrenia; paradoxical effects; event-related potentials; paranoid schizophrenia
• ISSN: 0097-0549; 1573-899X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11055-021-01156-5

This report addresses studies of brain activation in response to neutral and emotionally significant (threatening) stimuli using brain event-related potentials in healthy subjects and patients with paranoid schizophrenia. Threatening stimuli, as being more significant, induced greater activation (shortened latency and increased amplitude) in the occipital and posterior temporal areas in response to these stimuli as compared with neutral stimuli in both groups of subjects in a between-group study. This occurred on the right at 200 msec, then on the left at 300 msec, and then again on the right at 400 msec. Patients, starting from the P200 wave, responded to significant stimuli with an effect which was paradoxical from the physiological point of view. Thus, at 200 msec after stimulus presentation, the left inferior frontal area showed increases in amplitude and latency of the P200 wave, while decreases in both these parameters were seen in the right frontal and central areas along the midline. At 300 msec after the stimulus, paradoxical effects in the form of increases in both parameters were noted in the left prefrontal and right inferior frontal and decreases in the left inferior frontal and central areas along the midline. At 400 msec, paradoxical effects were seen in the left prefrontal and right inferior frontal areas in the form of increases in both parameters, and in the right prefrontal area in the form of decreases. Between-group comparison showed that as compared with normal, patients could display either increases or decreases in both parameters of all components of event-related potentials starting from the P200 wave, i.e., the pathological state of the anterior cerebral areas in response to this category of stimuli, which may be due to some alternative factors. This might be explicable in terms of impairments to neural networks due to pathological processes of aberrant pruning in schizophrenia patients.