Classification of Schizophrenia Patients and Healthy Controls Using P100 Event-Related Potentials for Visual Processing

The study of event-related potentials (ERPs) is capable of elucidating the abnormalities in brain network dynamics relevant to the information-processing deficits in schizophrenia patients. In contrast to P50 and P300 ERPs, however, the results of P100 ERP studies in schizophrenia patients are less consistent. We have previously reported that P100 amplitudes did not differ significantly between patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects. This result raised a question as to whether P100 ERPs carry information on brain network dynamics in schizophrenia patients that is distinct from normal controls. To answer this question, in this study we performed discrimination analysis on the P100 data. The rate of correct classification of patients and controls was high (80–90% depending on stimulus categories), indicating that patients have spatial patterns of P100 amplitudes that are distinguishable from those in healthy subjects. To further explore this possibility, we performed principal component analysis on the P100 data. For the patients, the first principal component represented global activity, the second component represented the reciprocal anterior-posterior activaReceived: July 29, 2012 Accepted after revision: March 24, 2013 Published online: July 19, 2013 Dr. Shoji Tanaka Department of Information and Communication Sciences Sophia University 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554 (Japan) E-Mail tanaka-s @ sophia.ac.jp © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel 0302–282X/13/0682–0071$38.00/0 www.karger.com/nps Th is is an Open Access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC) (www.karger.com/OA-license), applicable to the online version of the article only. Distribution permitted for non-commercial purposes only. D ow nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 11 /1 9/ 20 17 9 :1 4: 04 P M