Abstract
The auditory processing is diversely impaired in patients with the first-episode psychosis. During acute phase we previously reported reduced amplitudes in attention-dependent auditory evoked electrical brain potentials but not in those of early automatic components. Here seven first-episode patients at the disease onset and 5 years later were studied and compared to control subjects. At follow-up, also the unattended auditory stimuli elicited reduced amplitudes both in primary sensory component (N100, p = .043) and in automatic deviance detection (N200, p = .013) as compared to acute phase. Patients' psychopathology had improved, however they still showed alterations in components detecting automatic stimulus classification which may convey persisting tendency for misinterpretation in auditory perception.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the subjects and the personnel of the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.