Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov 21;23(1):860.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-05347-x.

Neurophysiological explorations across the spectrum of psychosis, autism, and depression, during wakefulness and sleep: protocol of a prospective case-control transdiagnostic multimodal study (DEMETER)

Valeria Lucarini  1   2 , Anaëlle Alouit  3 , Delphine Yeh  4 , Jeanne Le Coq  2 , Romane Savatte  2 , Mylène Charre  2 , Cécile Louveau  2 , Meryem Benlaifa Houamri  2 , Sylvain Penaud  4 , Alexandre Gaston-Bellegarde  4 , Stéphane Rio  5 , Laurent Drouet  5 , Maxime Elbaz  5 , Jean Becchio  6 , Sylvain Pourchet  6 , Estelle Pruvost-Robieux  3   7 , Angela Marchi  8 , Mylène Moyal  1   2 , Aline Lefebvre  9 , Boris Chaumette  1   2 , Martine Grice  10 , Påvel G Lindberg  3 , Lucile Dupin  11 , Pascale Piolino  4 , Cédric Lemogne  12 , Damien Léger  5   13 , Martine Gavaret  3   7 , Marie-Odile Krebs  1   2 , Anton Iftimovici  14   15
Affiliations

Neurophysiological explorations across the spectrum of psychosis, autism, and depression, during wakefulness and sleep: protocol of a prospective case-control transdiagnostic multimodal study (DEMETER)

Valeria Lucarini et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) analysis offers the opportunity to study high-level cognitive processes across psychiatric disorders. In particular, EEG microstates translate the temporal dynamics of neuronal networks throughout the brain. Their alteration may reflect transdiagnostic anomalies in neurophysiological functions that are impaired in mood, psychosis, and autism spectrum disorders, such as sensorimotor integration, speech, sleep, and sense of self. The main questions this study aims to answer are as follows: 1) Are EEG microstate anomalies associated with clinical and functional prognosis, both in resting conditions and during sleep, across psychiatric disorders? 2) Are EEG microstate anomalies associated with differences in sensorimotor integration, speech, sense of self, and sleep? 3) Can the dynamic of EEG microstates be modulated by a non-drug intervention such as light hypnosis?

Methods: This prospective cohort will include a population of adolescents and young adults, aged 15 to 30 years old, with ultra-high-risk of psychosis (UHR), first-episode psychosis (FEP), schizophrenia (SCZ), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and major depressive disorder (MDD), as well as healthy controls (CTRL) (N = 21 × 6), who will be assessed at baseline and after one year of follow-up. Participants will undergo deep phenotyping based on psychopathology, neuropsychological assessments, 64-channel EEG recordings, and biological sampling at the two timepoints. At baseline, the EEG recording will also be coupled to a sensorimotor task and a recording of the characteristics of their speech (prosody and turn-taking), a one-night polysomnography, a self-reference effect task in virtual reality (only in UHR, FEP, and CTRL). An interventional ancillary study will involve only healthy controls, in order to assess whether light hypnosis can modify the EEG microstate architecture in a direction opposite to what is seen in disease.

Discussion: This transdiagnostic longitudinal case-control study will provide a multimodal neurophysiological assessment of clinical dimensions (sensorimotor integration, speech, sleep, and sense of self) that are disrupted across mood, psychosis, and autism spectrum disorders. It will further test the relevance of EEG microstates as dimensional functional biomarkers.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT06045897.

Keywords: Autism; Depression; EEG microstates; Neurophysiology; Psychosis; Sense of self; Sensorimotor integration; Sleep; Speech; Virtual reality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Protocol design. MDD: major depressive disorder. UHR: ultra-high-risk of psychosis. FEP: first-episode psychosis. SCZ: schizophrenia. ASD: autism spectrum disorder. CTRL: healthy controls
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Power calculation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee PH, et al. Genomic relationships, novel loci, and pleiotropic mechanisms across eight psychiatric disorders. Cell. 2019;179:1469–1482.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Writing Committee for the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder et al. Virtual histology of cortical thickness and shared neurobiology in 6 psychiatric disorders. JAMA Psychiat. 2021;78:47. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.2694. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bellato A, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of altered electrophysiological markers of performance monitoring in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Autism. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021;131:964–987. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.10.018. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Newson JJ, Thiagarajan TC. EEG frequency bands in psychiatric disorders: a review of resting state studies. Front Hum Neurosci. 2019;12:521. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00521. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Uhlhaas PJ, Singer W. Abnormal neural oscillations and synchrony in schizophrenia. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010;11:100–113. doi: 10.1038/nrn2774. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data