Optimized Mismatch Negativity reflects correlates of deficient information processing in Schizophrenia: A combined EEG/MEG study

Introduction: Mismatch negativity (MMN) and its neuromagnetic analog (MMNm) are event-related brain responses elicited by changes in a sequence of auditory events and indexes of early cognitive processing. It consistently detects neural pre-attentive information processing deficits in schizophrenia. So far, MMN can be assessed with different methods (electroencephalography, EEG; magnetoencephalography, MEG) and different paradigms using the „traditional“ oddball (20% rare deviants) or the so-called „optimum“ designs (50% rare deviants varying in one of five parameters each) but the latter has not been applied to schizophrenia as yet.