Latent ERP components of cognitive dysfunctions in ADHD and schizophrenia.

Objective: The main goal was to assess common and specific deficits of cognitive control in (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) ADHD and schizophrenia (SZ) using event-related potentials (ERPs).

Method: Behavioral and EEG data in cued GO/NOGO task were recorded in 132 healthy controls (HC) and age, gender and education matched 63 ADHD adults, and 68 SZ patients.

Results: N2d wave in NOGO-GO contrast of ERPs did not differ between the groups while the P3d wave discriminated SZ group from two other groups. Latent components of ERPs were extracted by blind source separation method based on second-order statistics Kropotov et al. (2017) and compared between the groups. A counterpart of N2d wave of a frontally distributed latent component was smaller in SZ indicating a specific frontal dysfunction of conflict detection in SZ. Two centrally distributed P3 sub-components were reduced in both groups indicating a non-specific dysfunction of action inhibition operations in ADHD and SZ.

Conclusion: A pattern of specific and common dysfunctions in terms of latent ERP components shows a more complex picture of functional impairment in schizophrenia and ADHD in comparison to conventional N2/P3 ERP description.

Significance: The latent component approach shows a functionally different pattern of cognitive control impairment in comparison to the conventional ERP analysis.