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. 2018 Feb;59(1):41-48.
doi: 10.1111/sjop.12413.

Hallucinations, neuroplasticity, and prediction errors in schizophrenia

Amanda McCleery  1   2 , Jonathan K Wynn  1   2 , Daniel H Mathalon, Brian J Roach, Michael F Green  1   2
Affiliations

Hallucinations, neuroplasticity, and prediction errors in schizophrenia

Amanda McCleery et al. Scand J Psychol. 2018 Feb.

Erratum in

  • Corrigendum.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] Scand J Psychol. 2018 Jun;59(3):349. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12456. Scand J Psychol. 2018. PMID: 29733449 No abstract available.

Abstract

Auditory hallucinations, a hallmark symptom of psychosis, are experienced by most people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia at some point in their illness. Auditory hallucinations can be understood as a failure in predictive coding, whereby abnormalities in sensory/perceptual processing combine with biased cognitive processes to result in a dampening of normal prediction error signaling. In this paper, we used a roving mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm to optimize evaluation of prediction error signaling and short-term neuroplasticity in 30 people with schizophrenia (n = 16 with and n = 14 without recent auditory hallucinations) and 20 healthy comparison participants. The recent hallucinations group exhibited an abnormal roving MMN profile [F(2,27) = 3.98, p = 0.03], significantly reduced prediction error signaling [t(28) = -2.25, p = 0.03], and a trend for diminished short-term neuroplasticity [t(28) = 1.80, p = 0.08]. There were no statistically significant differences between the healthy comparison group and the combined schizophrenia group on any of the roving MMN indices. These findings are consistent with a predictive coding account of hallucinations in schizophrenia, which posits reduced prediction error signaling in those who are prone to hallucinations. These results also suggest that plasticity-mediated formation and online updating of predictive coding models may also be disrupted in individuals with recent hallucinations.

Keywords: Auditory hallucinations; mismatch negativity; prediction error signaling; psychotic disorders; roving MMN; short-term neuroplasticity.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MMN mean amplitude (electrode Fz) and topographic maps for a) healthy comparison subjects (HC), b) schizophrenia – hallucinations group (Sz-NH), and c) schizophrenia – no hallucinations group (Sz-H).
Figure 1
Figure 1
MMN mean amplitude (electrode Fz) and topographic maps for a) healthy comparison subjects (HC), b) schizophrenia – hallucinations group (Sz-NH), and c) schizophrenia – no hallucinations group (Sz-H).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean amplitude and 95%CI to standard and deviant tones in a) healthy comparison subjects (HC), b) schizophrenia – hallucinations group (Sz-NH), and c) schizophrenia – no hallucinations group (Sz-H).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean amplitude and 95%CI to standard and deviant tones in a) healthy comparison subjects (HC), b) schizophrenia – hallucinations group (Sz-NH), and c) schizophrenia – no hallucinations group (Sz-H).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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