Language-Related Neurophysiological Deficits in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder that affects all aspects of one’s life with several cognitive and social dysfunctions. However, there is still no objective and universal index for diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Many researchers have studied language processing in schizophrenia since most of the patients show symptoms related to language processing, such as thought disorder, auditory verbal hallucinations, or delusions. Electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) with millisecond order high temporal resolution, have been applied to reveal the abnormalities in language processing in schizophrenia. The aims of this review are ( a) to provide an overview of recent findings in language processing in schizophrenia with EEG and MEG using neurophysiological indices, providing insights into underlying language related pathophysiological deficits in this disease and ( b) to emphasize the advantage of EEG and MEG in research on language processing in schizophrenia.