| BackgroundThe mechanisms of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), a core syndrome of schizophrenia remain unclear. Since the auditory illusion is related to AVHs, it might be used to study the mechanisms of AVHs. On one hand, personality traits play a significant role in the psychological processing in both healthy people and patients as a common denominator, which might be manifested in processing of word illusions. On the other hand, the neurophysiological mechanisms are useful to address the early process of semantic information and attention, which are important aspects of AVHs.Aims1. To figure out the relationship between normal personality traits and the meaningful Chinese words reported by the Chinese-speaking healthy people when listening to the word illusion.2. In schizophrenia-related, Chinese-speaking patients with Cluster A personality disorders, to explore the relationship between the pathological personality traits and the meaningful Chinese words reported when they listening to the word illusion.3. To study the cerebral information processing through event-related potentials triggered by the most-productive word illusion in the Chinese-speaking schizophrenia patients with AVHs.Methods1. A total 177 normal females and 131 normal males were asked to answer the five-factor model Zukerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), and asked to report all words they heard when listening to the Deutsch "High-Low" word illusion. The meaningful Chinese words were later chosen and compared with normal personality traits.2. Eleven patients with paranoid,34 schizoid, and 13 schizotypal personality disorders, and 116 healthy volunteers were asked to report words they heard when listening to the Deutsch "High-Low" and "Harvey" word illusions. The meaningful Chinese words were later chosen and compared with the pathological personality traits.3. Sixteen patients with first-episode, paranoid schizophrenia with AVHs, and16 healthy volunteers were invited to undergo the "oddball" event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the Deutsch "High-Low" word illusion. The latencies, amplitudes, and cerebral area sources of ERPs were analyzed.Results1. Numbers of the meaningful Chinese words reported when the healthy Chinese people listening to the Deutsch "High-Low" word illusion were correlated with the ZKPQ impulsive sensation-seeking, aggression-hostility, and activity scores, while those who scored higher on these scales reported words representing their personality traits.2. The paranoid and schizoid personality disorder patients reported more meaningful Chinese words than healthy volunteers and schizotypal personality disorder patients did when they were listening to the "Harvey" word illusion, and reported more words corresponding to the pathological personality traits than the healthy volunteers did.3. Besides the longer reaction time to the Deutsch "high-low" word illusion, the most-reproductive piece, the standard P2 latency was shortened, the N2 latency was prolonged, and both N1 and P3 amplitudes were reduced in patients with schizophrenia. The P3 source analyses showed the activated left inferior temporal gyrus in healthy volunteers, and left postcentral gyrus in patients. Moreover, the N1 amplitude was positively correlated with the paranoid scale score in patients.ConclusionsWhen Chinese-speaking people listened to the Deutsch word illusion they might use normal or pathological personality traits related cognitive schemata, which might help understand the personality-related cognitions in personality disorder patients, and provide more supports for the cognitive therapy to these disorders. Moreover, our results illustrate a whole process of cerebral information processing, the cerebral potentials from N1 to P3, indicating the Deutsch "high-low" word illusion might trigger a dynamic cerebral response similar to which AVHs have engaged. |
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