JOURNAL OF SHANGHAI JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY (MEDICAL SCIENCE) ›› 2020, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (06): 820-827.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2020.06.018

• Original article (Clinical research) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Abnormal semantic and syntactic processing in patients with schizophrenia: an event-related potential study

YANG Qiao1, TANG Ying-ying2, QIAN Zhen-ying2, YANG Fu-zhong1, QIAO Yi1, SHENG Jian-hua1#, LU Guang-hua3#   

  1. 1. The Fourth Department of Clinical Medicine, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China; 2. Electroencephalography and Brain Imaging Laboratory, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China; 3. The Second Department of Geriatrics, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
  • Online:2020-06-28 Published:2020-06-28
  • Supported by:
    Health Profession Clinical Research Funds of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (201840269); Western Medicine Guidance Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (17411969900); National Key Clinical Discipline at Shanghai Mental Health Center (OMA-MH 2011-873).

PDF (PC)

183

Abstract: Objective · To explore the differences of event-related potential components (N400 and P600) in response to language processing between schizophrenia (SZ) patients with formal thought disorder (FTD), SZ patients without FTD, genetic high-risk subjects and healthy controls (HC). Methods · Thirty SZ patients with FTD (SZ-FTD group) and 29 SZ patients without FTD (SZ-nFTD group), who were hospitalized in Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 22 subjects at genetic high risk who were first degree relatives of SZ patients, and 31 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Four different types of sentences (syntactically and semantically correct, syntactically correct but semantically incorrect, syntactically incorrect but semantically correct, and syntactically and semantically incorrect) were presented to the four groups respectively with electroencephalogram recording. Repeated measurement analysis of variance was used to compare the response accuracy of the four groups and to analyze the differences in the amplitude and latency of N400 and P600 components in response to each kind of sentence among the four groups. Results · SZ-FTD group showed a lower accuracy rate compared with the HC group (P=0.000). Compared with the HC group, N400 amplitude in SZ-FTD group was lower in statistically significance (P=0.003), while SZ-FTD group did not show a prominent N400 component. P600 component was well evoked in four groups, and there was an interaction between semantics, syntax and group (P=0.022). By further analysis, neither SZ-FTD nor SZ-nFTD group showed significant differences in P600 amplitudes evoked by syntactically correct and syntactically incorrect sentences. There was no significant difference in P600 amplitudes evoked by semantically correct and incorrect sentences in SZ-FTD group, whereas P600 amplitudes evoked by semantically correct sentences were greater than those evoked by semantically incorrect ones in the other three groups. Conclusion · Neural activity is impaired during semantic processing in SZ. In particular, SZ-FTD patients have impairments in both semantic and syntactic processing.

Key words: schizophrenia (SZ), event-related potential (ERP), N400, P600, semantic processing, syntactic processing

CLC Number: