P300 asymmetry in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) amplitude is smaller in patients with schizophrenia compared to unaffected controls, but whether left temporal component amplitude is also smaller is debated. The present study employed meta-analytical methods to quantitatively assess previous P300 schizophrenia asymmetry findings. All P300 articles on schizophrenia using an auditory oddball paradigm published before January 2000 were obtained by comprehensive literature searches and cross-referencing for related articles. A total of 19 original articles reporting complete midline electrode data and 11 articles reporting lateral asymmetry electrode data were reviewed, which included different independent conditions that yielded 50 independent data sets. P300 amplitude differences between patients with schizophrenia and control subjects from the midline electrodes yielded effect sizes that differed among recording sites, such that Fz was significantly smaller than Pz, with Cz effect sizes smaller than Pz but larger than Fz. Comparison of P300 amplitude from the lateral data for the T3 and T4 electrodes found no reliable effect size difference when these electrodes were analyzed separately. However, comparison of P300 amplitude effect sizes from the TCP1 was significantly larger than that from the TCP2 when these electrodes were analyzed separately. P300 amplitude is smaller overall in patients with schizophrenia compared to control subjects and differs in its effect size topography across the midline and temporal electrode sites, with the strongest effect sizes obtained for the Pz midline and TCP1 lateral electrodes.

[1]  G. Tucker.  Seizure disorders presenting with psychiatric symptomatology. , 1998, The Psychiatric clinics of North America.

[2]  Maximum variance of late component event related potentials (190–240 ms) in unmedicated schizophrenic patients , 1995, Psychiatry Research.

[3]  T. Crow,et al.  A “Mock up” of schizophrenia: Temporal lobe epilepsy and schizophrenia-like psychosis , 1990, Biological Psychiatry.

[4]  D. Blackwood,et al.  P300, a state and a trait marker in schizophrenia , 2000, The Lancet.

[5]  S. Stefánsson,et al.  Auditory event-related potentials, auditory digit span, and clinical symptoms in chronic schizophrenic men on neuroleptic medication , 1996, Biological Psychiatry.

[6]  Blair T. Johnson.  DSTAT : software for the meta-analytic review of research literatures , 1992 .

[7]  L. Hedges,et al.  The Handbook of Research Synthesis , 1995 .

[8]  Walter J. Muir,et al.  Auditory P300 event-related potentials and neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder , 1995, Biological Psychiatry.

[9]  R. M. Murray,et al.  The Maudsley Family Study, II: Endogenous event-related potentials in familial schizophrenia , 1997, Schizophrenia Research.

[10]  Toshiaki Sakai,et al.  P300 in first degree relatives of schizophrenics , 1991, Schizophrenia Research.

[11]  H Begleiter,et al.  P300 hemispheric amplitude asymmetries from a visual oddball task. , 1995, Psychophysiology.

[12]  J. Polich,et al.  Cognitive and biological determinants of P300: an integrative review , 1995, Biological Psychology.

[13]  Martha E Shenton,et al.  P300 topography differs in schizophrenia and manic psychosis , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[14]  M. Posner,et al.  The attention system of the human brain. , 1990, Annual review of neuroscience.

[15]  T. Goldberg,et al.  Schizophrenia and temporal lobe epilepsy. A neuropsychological analysis. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[16]  F. Bloom,et al.  Meta-analysis of P300 amplitude from males at risk for alcoholism , 1994 .

[17]  Y. Kawasaki,et al.  The relationship between auditory ERP and neuropsychological assessments in schizophrenia. , 1999, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[18]  E. Halgren,et al.  Intracerebral potentials to rare target and distractor auditory and visual stimuli. I. Superior temporal plane and parietal lobe. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[19]  E. Halgren,et al.  Intracerebral potentials to rare target and distractor auditory and visual stimuli. II. Medial, lateral and posterior temporal lobe. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[20]  W. Pritchard,et al.  Cognitive event-related potential correlates of schizophrenia. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  B. Gangadhar,et al.  Smaller auditory P300 amplitude in schizophrenics in remission. , 1995, Neuropsychobiology.

[22]  J. Stevens,et al.  Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, and the Extended Amygdala , 1999, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[23]  R. Knight.  Distributed Cortical Network for Visual Attention , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[24]  F L Bookstein,et al.  Identification of neural circuits underlying P300 abnormalities in schizophrenia. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[25]  J. Ford.  Schizophrenia: the broken P300 and beyond. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[26]  Klaus P. Ebmeier,et al.  Correlation of auditory ‘oddball’ P300 with verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia , 1997, Psychological Medicine.

[27]  M. Mendez,et al.  Schizophrenia in epilepsy , 1993, Neurology.

[28]  J. Jolles,et al.  A controlled study of temporal lobe structure volumes and P300 responses in schizophrenic patients with persistent auditory hallucinations , 1999, Schizophrenia Research.

[29]  J. Brodie,et al.  Negative symptoms and hypofrontality in chronic schizophrenia. , 1992, Archives of general psychiatry.

[30]  C. C. Duncan,et al.  Event-related potential abnormalities correlate with structural brain alterations and clinical features in patients with chronic schizophrenia , 1994, Schizophrenia Research.

[31]  R I Grossman,et al.  Frontal and temporal lobe brain volumes in schizophrenia. Relationship to symptoms and clinical subtype. , 1995, Archives of general psychiatry.

[32]  R. McCarley,et al.  MRI anatomy of schizophrenia , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[33]  Klaus P. Ebmeier,et al.  Hypofrontality revisited: a high resolution single photon emission computed tomography study in schizophrenia. , 1995, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[34]  J. Ford,et al.  P300 amplitude is related to clinical state in severely and moderately ill patients with schizophrenia , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[35]  V. Pollock,et al.  Meta-analytic synthesis for theory development. , 1994 .

[36]  M. Trimble,et al.  Psychiatric symptoms after therapy with new antiepileptic drugs: Psychopathological and seizure related variables , 2000, Seizure.

[37]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Prefrontal Activation Evoked by Infrequent Target and Novel Stimuli in a Visual Target Detection Task: An Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study , 2000, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[38]  R. McCarley,et al.  Is there P300 asymmetry in schizophrenia? , 1991, Archives of general psychiatry.

[39]  Iwanami Akira,et al.  P300 component of event-related potentials in methamphetamine psychosis and schizophrenia , 1994, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.

[40]  D L Braff,et al.  Increased distractibility in schizophrenic patients. Electrophysiologic and behavioral evidence. , 1990, Archives of general psychiatry.

[41]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Information processing and attentional functioning in the developmental course of schizophrenic disorders. , 1984, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[42]  J. Ford,et al.  ERPs in schizophrenia: Effects of antipsychotic medication , 1994, Biological Psychiatry.

[43]  P. Sachdev.  Schizophrenia-like psychosis and epilepsy: the status of the association. , 1998, The American journal of psychiatry.

[44]  J. Mellers,et al.  A neuropsychological comparison of schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy , 2000, Psychological Medicine.

[45]  M E Shenton,et al.  P300 topographic asymmetries are present in unmedicated schizophrenics. , 1993, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[46]  C. Frith,et al.  Epilepsy, psychosis, and schizophrenia , 1994, Neurology.

[47]  B. Gangadhar,et al.  P300 in family studies of schizophrenia: review and critique. , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[48]  D. Weinberger,et al.  Speculation on the meaning of cerebral metabolic hypofrontality in schizophrenia. , 1988, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[49]  H Begleiter,et al.  Hemispheric differences for P300 amplitude from an auditory oddball task. , 1996, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[50]  J. Polich,et al.  Meta-analysis of P300 normative aging studies. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[51]  F. Duffy,et al.  Altered P300 topography in schizophrenia. , 1983, Archives of general psychiatry.

[52]  G. Glass,et al.  Meta-analysis in social research , 1981 .

[53]  Larry J. Seidman,et al.  Relationship of prefrontal and temporal lobe MRI measures to neuropsychological performance in chronic schizophrenia , 1994, Biological Psychiatry.

[54]  R. McCarley,et al.  Uniting Kraepelin and Bleuler: The Psychology of Schizophrenia and the Biology of Temporal Lobe Abnormalities , 1993, Harvard review of psychiatry.

[55]  D. Weinberger,et al.  Evidence of dysfunction of a prefrontal-limbic network in schizophrenia: a magnetic resonance imaging and regional cerebral blood flow study of discordant monozygotic twins. , 1992, The American journal of psychiatry.

[56]  J. Polich.  P300 clinical utility and control of variability. , 1998, Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society.

[57]  J. Ford,et al.  Left temporal deficit of P300 in patients with schizophrenia: effects of task. , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[58]  J. Stevens.  Anatomy of schizophrenia revisited. , 1997, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[59]  D. Weinberger,et al.  The brain in schizophrenia. , 1990, Seminars in neurology.

[60]  J. Polich,et al.  P300 as a clinical assay: rationale, evaluation, and findings. , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[61]  J. Cohen,et al.  Functional hypofrontality and working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. , 1998, The American journal of psychiatry.

[62]  L. Hedges,et al.  Statistical Methods for Meta-Analysis , 1987 .

[63]  N. Andreasen,et al.  Hypofrontality in schizophrenia: distributed dysfunctional circuits in neuroleptic-naïve patients , 1997, The Lancet.

[64]  J. Ford,et al.  P3 in schizophrenia is affected by stimulus modality, response requirements, medication status, and negative symptoms. , 1989, Archives of general psychiatry.

[65]  R. Knight.  Contribution of human hippocampal region to novelty detection , 1996, Nature.

[66]  J Gorman,et al.  Left temporal lobe dysfunction in schizophrenia: event-related potential and behavioral evidence from phonetic and tonal dichotic listening tasks. , 1999, Archives of general psychiatry.

[67]  V. Pollock.  Meta-analysis of subjective sensitivity to alcohol in sons of alcoholics. , 1992, The American journal of psychiatry.

[68]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Infrequent events transiently activate human prefrontal and parietal cortex as measured by functional MRI. , 1997, Journal of neurophysiology.

[69]  A Pfefferbaum,et al.  Event-related potentials in schizophrenics. , 1980, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[70]  D Friedman,et al.  Event-related potentials (ERPs) as indicators of risk for schizophrenia. , 1994, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[71]  R. McCarley,et al.  Event-related potentials in schizophrenia: their biological and clinical correlates and new model of schizophrenic pathophysiology , 1991, Schizophrenia Research.

[72]  R. McCarley,et al.  Parametric manipulations of auditory stimuli differentially affect P3 amplitude in schizophrenics and controls. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[73]  A. Iwanami,et al.  P300 in methamphetamine psychosis , 1991, Biological Psychiatry.

[74]  E. Halgren,et al.  Intracerebral potentials to rare target and distractor auditory and visual stimuli. III. Frontal cortex. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[75]  T M Hyde,et al.  Seizures and schizophrenia. , 1997, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[76]  Robert Rosenthal,et al.  Meta-Analytic Procedures for Social Science Research , 1986 .

[77]  R. Knight,et al.  Contributions of temporal-parietal junction to the human auditory P3 , 1989, Brain Research.

[78]  J. Ford,et al.  Failures of automatic and strategic processing in schizophrenia: comparisons of event-related brain potential and startle blink modification , 1999, Schizophrenia Research.

[79]  D. Blackwood,et al.  Methodological considerations in measurement of the P300 component of the auditory oddball ERP in schizophrenia. , 1994, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[80]  D. Javitt,et al.  Effects of clozapine on auditory event-related potentials in schizophrenia , 1998, Biological Psychiatry.

[81]  M E Shenton,et al.  First-episode schizophrenic psychosis differs from first-episode affective psychosis and controls in P300 amplitude over left temporal lobe. , 1998, Archives of general psychiatry.

[82]  L. Squire,et al.  P300 from amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal lesions. , 1993, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[83]  J. Ford,et al.  Is There P300 Asymmetry in Schizophrenia?-Reply , 1991 .

[84]  J. Polich,et al.  P300 topography and modality effects from a single-stimulus paradigm. , 1996, Psychophysiology.