Abstract
MMN elicited by visual stimuli (vMMN) was described by several research teams, but it has not been investigated in schizophrenia as yet. Using a motion-direction paradigm, we elicited visual MMN in 24 patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
The vMMN was computed as difference in areas under curve (AUC) of visual ERPs to standard and deviant motion direction stimuli recorded from midline derivations at the interval of 100-200 msec. AUC were compared between groups of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
The significantly smaller vMMN indicated an impaired generation of mismatch negativity in patients with schizophrenia. In secondary analyses there was an association of vMMN impairment among patients with higher dose of medication, lower level of social functioning and the presence of deficit syndrome.
This impairment appears analogous to the impairment of MMN in the auditory domain and is probably related to early visual information processing.