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This study investigated the cortical generators of P300 in college students with schizotypal traits by using an auditory oddball paradigm, event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) model. We also investigated the relationship between the current density of P300 and the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia. Based on the scores of Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire(SPQ), schizotypal trait (n=37) and control (n=42) groups were selected. For the measurement of P300, an auditory oddball paradigm, in which frequent standard tones (1000Hz) and rare target tones (1500Hz) were presented randomly, was used. Participants were required to count the number of the target tones during the task and report this at the end of the experiment. The two groups did not differ significantly in the accuracy of the oddball task. The schizotypal trait group showed significantly smaller P300 amplitudes than control group. In terms of source localization, both groups showed the P300 current density over bilateral frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes. However, the schizotypal trait group showed significantly reduced activations in the left superior temporal gyrus and the right middle temporal gyrus, but increased activations in both left inferior frontal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus compared to the control group. Furthermore, a negative correlation between the current density of the right superior frontal gyrus and SPQ disorganization score was found in the schizotypal trait group. These findings indicate that the individuals with schizotypal traits have dysfunctions of frontal and temporal areas, which are known to be the source of P300, as observed in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, the present results indicate that the disorganization score, rather than total score, of the SPQ is useful in predicting the risk of future schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent fMRI and EEG research for neural representations of action concepts insist that processing of action concepts evoke the simulation of sensory-motor information. Moreover, there are several behavioral studies showing that understanding of action verbs or sentences describing actions interfere or facilitate current action performance. However, it is unclear that online interaction between processing of action concepts and current action is based on the simulation of sensory-motor information, or other neural mechanisms. The present research aims to explore the underlying neural mechanism that how the perception of action language influence the performance of current action using high-spacial temporal resolution EEG and multiple source analysis techniques. For this, participants were asked to perform a cued-motor reaction task in which button-pressing hand action and pedal-stepping foot action were required according to the color of the cue, and we presented auditorily action verbs describing the responding actions (i.e., /press/, /step/, /stop/) just before the color cue and examined the interaction effect from the semantic congruency between the action verbs and the current action. Behavioral results revealed consistently a facilitatory effect when action verbs and responding actions were semantically congruent in both button-pressing and pedal-stepping actions, and an inhibitory effect when semantically incongruent in the button-pressing action condition. In the results of EEG source waveform analysis, the semantic congruency effects between action verbs and the responding actions were observed in the Wernicke’s area during the perception of action verbs, in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the supplementary motor area (SMA) at the time when the motor-cue was presented, and in the SMA and primary motor cortex (M1) during action execution stage. Based on the current findings, we argue that perceived action verbs evoke the facilitation/inhibition effect by influencing the expectation and preparation stage of following actions rather than the directly activating the particular motor cortex. Finally we discussed the implication on the neural representation of action concepts and methodological limitations of the current research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The power spectral analysis of electroencephalogram has been widely used to reveal the pathophysiology of the alcoholic brain. However, the results were not consistent and the three dimensional study can be hardly found. The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of the three dimensional electroencephalographic (EEG) activity of alcohol dependent patients using standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). Methods The participants consisted of 30 alcohol dependent patients and 30 normal healthy controls. All the participants were males who had refrained from alcohol at least one month and were not taking any medications. Thirty two channel EEG data was collected in the resting state with eyes-closed condition during 30 seconds. The three dimensional data was compared between two groups using sLORETA for delta, theta, alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 frequency bands. Results sLORETA revealed significantly increased brain cortical activity in alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 bands each in alcohol dependent patients compared to normal controls. The voxels showing the maximum significance were in the left transverse temporal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, left anterior cingulate, and left fusiform gyrus in alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 bands respectively. Conclusions These results suggest that chronic alcohol intake may cause neurophysiological changes in cerebral activity. Therefore, the measuring of EEG can be helpful in understanding the pathophysiology of cognitive impairements in alcohol dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]