Circumventing the deficit of context processing in schizophrenia: an event-related brain potential study.

The deficit in semantic processing observed in schizophrenia patients may be due 1) to a 'genuine' deficit in processing new semantic information and 2) to a deficit in the ability to process and maintain the context in which the new semantic information has to be integrated. In a previous study, we designed a paradigm to study only the processing of new information. The processing of context was eased in the hope that patients would perform it as normals do.

Delusions and processing of discrepant information: an event-related brain potential study.

One possible explanation for why delusions persist despite the awareness of contradictory information is that the new information fails to be integrated. Interestingly, the amplitude of the N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) has been proposed as an index of the integration of information that is discrepant with expectancies whatever the task in which the potential is found. Thus, delusions may persist because of a deficit in integration as indexed by the N400.

Childhood abuse and dissociative symptoms in adult schizophrenia.

Dissociative symptoms, occurring in many psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, are often preceded by traumatic experience. We hypothesized that various types of childhood trauma would correlate with levels of dissociative symptomatology in adult patients. Twenty-six patients completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).