Role of aberrant neural oscillations for multisensory processing deficits in schizophrenia

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniel Senkowski
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289167885

Periodic fluctuations of excitatory and inhibitory states, as reflected in neural oscillations, are crucial for information processing in cortical networks. Dysfunctional neural connectivity, which has been linked to abnormal oscillations, presumably contributes to the pathophysiology in schizophrenia (ScZ). Studies examining neural oscillations in ScZ have primarily used unisensory stimulation protocols. Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies have also suggested multisensory processing deficits in ScZ, but the neurophysiologic mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. The integration of multisensory stimuli requires information processing across multiple senses and neural oscillations play an important role therein. For these reasons, multisensory paradigms are promising for studying neural oscillations in ScZ patients. The central goal of this proposal is to test the assumption that abnormal neural oscillations contribute to multisensory processing deficits in ScZ. The project comprises of four electroencephalography studies using multisensory paradigms for which effects in neural oscillations have been previously established in healthy participants. To reveal a more global picture of multisensory processing in ScZ, the experiments feature a wide range of research questions. Experiment 1 will address how motion congruence affects the processing of visuotactile stimuli, as reflected in gamma-band oscillations (GBO > 30 Hz) in sensory cortices. Experiment 2 will examine audiovisual speech processing under noisy acoustic conditions, as expressed in beta-band oscillations (13-30 Hz) in the superior temporal sulcus. Experiment 3 will investigate the processing of crossmodal prediction errors generated by audiovisual speech, as observed in theta-band oscillations (4-7 Hz) and GBO. Experiment 4 will focus on the influence of top-down attention on early evoked GBO to basic audiovisual stimuli. State-of-the-art analysis approaches will be applied to examine multisensory processing, as reflected in local power, dynamic network patterns, and functional connectivity in ScZ patients and healthy control participants. The experiments will uncover whether abnormalities in these measures relate to the ScZ pathophysiology. Taken together, the project will substantially advance our understanding of how aberrant neural oscillations contribute to multisensory processing deficits in schizophrenia.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Privatdozentin Dr. Christiane Montag