Auditory change detection in schizophrenia: sources of activity, related neuropsychological function and symptoms in patients with a first episode in adolescence, and patients 14 years after an adolescent illness-onset.

Background: The event-related brain response mismatch negativity (MMN) registers changes in auditory stimulation with temporal lobe sources reflecting short-term echoic memory and frontal sources a deviance-induced switch in processing. Impairment, controversially present at the onset of schizophrenia, develops rapidly and can remain independent of clinical improvement. We examined the characteristics of the scalp-recorded MMN and related these to tests of short-term memory and set-shifting.