Identifying electrophysiological markers of autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia against a backdrop of normal brain development

White matter microstructure as a potential contributor to differences in resting state alpha activity between neurotypical and autistic children: a longitudinal multimodal imaging study

We and others have demonstrated the resting-state (RS) peak alpha frequency (PAF) as a potential clinical marker for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with previous studies observing a higher PAF in school-age children with ASD versus typically developing (TD) children, as well as an association between the RS PAF and measures of processing speed in TD but not ASD. The brain mechanisms associated with these findings are unknown. A few studies have found that in children more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher PAF. Other studies have reported white matter and neural activity associations in TD but not ASD. The present study hypothesized that group differences in the RS PAF are due, in part, to group differences in optic radiation white matter and PAF associations. The maturation of the RS PAF (measured using magnetoencephalography(MEG)), optic radiation white matter (measured using diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)), and associations with processing speed were assessed in a longitudinal cohort of TD and ASD children. Time 1 MEG and DTI measures were obtained at 6-8 years old (59TD and 56ASD) with follow-up brain measures collected ~ 1.5 and ~ 3 years later. The parietal-occipital PAF increased with age in both groups by 0.13 Hz/year, with a main effect of group showing the expected higher PAF in ASD than TD (an average of 0.26 Hz across the 3 time points). Across age, the RS PAF predicted processing speed in TD but not ASD. Finally, more mature optic radiation white matter measures (FA, RD, MD, AD) were associated with a higher PAF in both groups. Present findings provide additional evidence supporting the use of the RS PAF as a brain marker in children with ASD 6-10 years old, and replicate findings of an association between the RS PAF and processing speed in TD but not ASD. The hypothesis that the RS PAF group differences (with ASD leading TD by about 2 years) would be explained by group differences in optic radiation white matter was not supported, with brain structure-function associations indicating that more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher RS PAF in both groups.

Early- and Late-Stage Auditory Processing of Speech Versus Non-Speech Sounds in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An ERP and Oscillatory Activity Study

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit greater sensitivity to non-speech sounds, reduced sensitivity to speech, and increased variability in cortical activity during auditory speech processing. We assessed differences in cortical responses and variability in early and later processing stages of auditory speech versus non-speech sounds in typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD. Twenty-eight 4- to 9-year-old children (14 ASDs) listened to speech and non-speech sounds during an electroencephalography session. We measured peak amplitudes for early (P2) and later (P3a) stages of auditory processing and inter-trial theta phase coherence as a marker of cortical variability. TD children were more sensitive to speech sounds during early and later processing stages than ASD children, reflected in larger P2 and P3a amplitudes. Individually, twice as many TD children showed reliable differentiation between speech and non-speech sounds compared to children with ASD. Children with ASD showed greater intra-individual variability in theta responses to speech sounds during early and later processing stages. Children with ASD show atypical auditory processing of fundamental speech sounds, perhaps due to reduced and more variable cortical activation. These atypicalities in the consistency of cortical responses to fundamental speech features may impact the development of cortical networks and have downstream effects on more complex forms of language processing.

The future of psychophysiology, then and now

Since its founding in 1973, Biological Psychology has showcased and provided invaluable support to psychophysiology, a field that has grown and changed enormously. This article discusses some constancies that have remained fundamental to the journal and to the field as well as some important trends. Some aspects of our science have not received due consideration, affecting not only the generalizability of our findings but the way we develop and evaluate our research questions and the potential of our field to contribute to the common good. The article offers a number of predictions and recommendations for the next period of growth of psychophysiology.

Resting-State Activity in Children: Replicating and Extending Findings of Early Maturation of Alpha Rhythms in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Resting-state alpha brain rhythms provide a foundation for basic as well as higher-order brain processes. Research suggests atypical maturation of the peak frequency of resting-state alpha activity (= PAF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study examined resting-state alpha activity in young school-aged children, obtaining magnetoencephalographic (MEG) eyes-closed resting-state data from 47 typically developing (TD) males and 45 ASD males 6.0 to 9.3 years old. Results confirmed a higher PAF in ASD versus TD, and demonstrated that alpha power differences between groups were linked to the shift of PAF in ASD. Additionally, a higher PAF was associated with better cognitive performance in TD but not ASD. Finding thus suggested functional consequences of group differences in resting-state alpha activity.

Towards Biomarkers for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Contributions of Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

There is no simple blood test for autism. Consequently, much attention has been paid to identifying noninvasive biomarkers using imaging (e.g., Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI) and electrophysiological (e.g., electroencephalography, EEG and magnetoencephalography, MEG) methods. While, in general, these lack direct biological specificity, they can (in principle) provide a useful tool, or suite of tools, for diagnostic, prognostic, stratification, and response monitoring purposes.This chapter focuses on the pursuit of biomarkers using magnetoencephalography (MEG). While closely related to the more common electroencephalography (EEG), MEG offers some unique characteristics (such as improved spatial resolution, in combination with real-time temporal resolution and spectral discrimination), that might be considered impactful in the pursuit of biomarkers.Given the widely-acknowledged heterogeneity of ASD ("if you've seen one child with autism, then you've seen one child with autism"), the tide of research is perhaps shifting away from diagnostic biomarkers toward biomarkers that can help stratify patients according to some similarity in biological basis, etiology, or pathway. This approach, somewhat pragmatic, may be of benefit when designing and conducting clinical trials of putative therapeutics, or when optimally designing behavioral supports (when "therapy" may not be indicated).Ultimately, MEG-derived biomarkers, however advantageous in themselves, may likely find a place as reference in the prioritization and roll-out of candidate biomarkers established using other modalities, more accessible and available to the global community.

Both stronger and weaker cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity patterns during processing of spoken sentences in autism spectrum disorder

Cerebellar differences have long been documented in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet the extent to which such differences might impact language processing in ASD remains unknown. To investigate this, we recorded brain activity with magnetoencephalography (MEG) while ASD and age-matched typically developing (TD) children passively processed spoken meaningful English and meaningless Jabberwocky sentences. Using a novel source localization approach that allows higher resolution MEG source localization of cerebellar activity, we found that, unlike TD children, ASD children showed no difference between evoked responses to meaningful versus meaningless sentences in right cerebellar lobule VI. ASD children also had atypically weak functional connectivity in the meaningful versus meaningless speech condition between right cerebellar lobule VI and several left-hemisphere sensorimotor and language regions in later time windows. In contrast, ASD children had atypically strong functional connectivity for in the meaningful versus meaningless speech condition between right cerebellar lobule VI and primary auditory cortical areas in an earlier time window. The atypical functional connectivity patterns in ASD correlated with ASD severity and the ability to inhibit involuntary attention. These findings align with a model where cerebro-cerebellar speech processing mechanisms in ASD are impacted by aberrant stimulus-driven attention, which could result from atypical temporal information and predictions of auditory sensory events by right cerebellar lobule VI.

Differential Maturation of Auditory Cortex Activity in Young Children with Autism and Typical Development

Maturation of auditory cortex neural encoding processes was assessed in children with typical development (TD) and autism. Children 6-9 years old were enrolled at Time 1 (T1), with follow-up data obtained ~ 18 months later at Time 2 (T2), and ~ 36 months later at Time 3 (T3). Findings suggested an initial period of rapid auditory cortex maturation in autism, earlier than TD (prior to and surrounding the T1 exam), followed by a period of faster maturation in TD than autism (T1-T3). As a result of group maturation differences, post-stimulus group differences were observed at T1 but not T3. In contrast, stronger pre-stimulus activity in autism than TD was found at all time points, indicating this brain measure is stable across time.

Dopaminergic dysfunction and excitatory/inhibitory imbalance in treatment-resistant schizophrenia and novel neuromodulatory treatment

Antipsychotic drugs are the mainstay in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, one-third of patients do not show adequate improvement in positive symptoms with non-clozapine antipsychotics. Additionally, approximately half of them show poor response to clozapine, electroconvulsive therapy, or other augmentation strategies. However, the development of novel treatment for these conditions is difficult due to the complex and heterogenous pathophysiology of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Therefore, this review provides key findings, potential treatments, and a roadmap for future research in this area. First, we review the neurobiological pathophysiology of TRS, particularly the dopaminergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic pathways. Next, the limitations of existing and promising treatments are presented. Specifically, this article focuses on the therapeutic potential of neuromodulation, including electroconvulsive therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and deep brain stimulation. Finally, we propose multivariate analyses that integrate various perspectives of the pathogenesis, such as dopaminergic dysfunction and excitatory/inhibitory imbalance, thereby elucidating the heterogeneity of TRS that could not be obtained by conventional statistics. These analyses can in turn lead to a precision medicine approach with closed-loop neuromodulation targeting the detected pathophysiology of TRS.

Application of a Machine Learning Algorithm for Structural Brain Images in Chronic Schizophrenia to Earlier Clinical Stages of Psychosis and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Multiprotocol Imaging Dataset Study

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS

Machine learning approaches using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be informative for disease classification; however, their applicability to earlier clinical stages of psychosis and other disease spectra is unknown. We evaluated whether a model differentiating patients with chronic schizophrenia (ChSZ) from healthy controls (HCs) could be applied to earlier clinical stages such as first-episode psychosis (FEP), ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR), and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

STUDY DESIGN

Total 359 T1-weighted MRI scans, including 154 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum (UHR, n = 37; FEP, n = 24; and ChSZ, n = 93), 64 with ASD, and 141 HCs, were obtained using three acquisition protocols. Of these, data regarding ChSZ (n = 75) and HC (n = 101) from two protocols were used to build a classifier (training dataset). The remainder was used to evaluate the classifier (test, independent confirmatory, and independent group datasets). Scanner and protocol effects were diminished using ComBat.

STUDY RESULTS

The accuracy of the classifier for the test and independent confirmatory datasets were 75% and 76%, respectively. The bilateral pallidum and inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis strongly contributed to classifying ChSZ. Schizophrenia spectrum individuals were more likely to be classified as ChSZ compared to ASD (classification rate to ChSZ: UHR, 41%; FEP, 54%; ChSZ, 70%; ASD, 19%; HC, 21%).

CONCLUSION

We built a classifier from multiple protocol structural brain images applicable to independent samples from different clinical stages and spectra. The predictive information of the classifier could be useful for applying neuroimaging techniques to clinical differential diagnosis and predicting disease onset earlier.

Association between the examination rate of treatment-resistant schizophrenia and the clozapine prescription rate in a nationwide dissemination and implementation study

BACKGROUND

The decision to initiate clozapine treatment should be made on an individual basis and may be closely related to the early detection of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), although there is evidence that the early use of clozapine results in a better response to treatment. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between the examination rate of TRS and the prescription rate of clozapine.

METHODS

After attending a 1-day educational program on schizophrenia based on the "Guidelines for the Pharmacological Treatment of Schizophrenia," we asked the participating facilities to submit records of whether or not TRS was evaluated for each patient. We calculated the clozapine prescription rate from the schizophrenic patients prescribed clozapine and all of the schizophrenic patients. Forty-nine facilities in 2017 were included in the study.

RESULTS

There were dichotomous distributions in the examination rate of TRS and a non-normal distribution in the prescription rate of clozapine. There was a significant correlation between the prescription rate of clozapine and the examination rate of TRS (r s  = 0.531, P = 1.032 × 10-4 ). A significant difference was found in the prescription rate of clozapine between the three groups of facilities according to the examination rate of TRS.

CONCLUSION

As a preliminary problem for the use of clozapine, in Japan, the examination rate of TRS varies, and there are many facilities that typically do not consider the possibility of TRS; this trend leads to a low rate of clozapine use. Clearly, further clinician training is needed for the early detection and appropriate management of TRS that includes an explanation of TRS and how to introduce clozapine therapy to patients and their families.

Trends in big data analyses by multicenter collaborative translational research in psychiatry

The underlying pathologies of psychiatric disorders, which cause substantial personal and social losses, remain unknown, and their elucidation is an urgent issue. To clarify the core pathological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, in addition to laboratory-based research that incorporates the latest findings, it is necessary to conduct large-sample-size research and verify reproducibility. For this purpose, it is critical to conduct multicenter collaborative research across various fields, such as psychiatry, neuroscience, molecular biology, genomics, neuroimaging, cognitive science, neurophysiology, psychology, and pharmacology. Moreover, collaborative research plays an important role in the development of young researchers. In this respect, the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium and Cognitive Genetics Collaborative Research Organization (COCORO) have played important roles. In this review, we first overview the importance of multicenter collaborative research and our target psychiatric disorders. Then, we introduce research findings on the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders from neurocognitive, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, genetic, and basic neuroscience perspectives, focusing mainly on the findings obtained by COCORO. It is our hope that multicenter collaborative research will contribute to the elucidation of the pathological basis of psychiatric disorders.

Biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder: opportunities for magnetoencephalography (MEG)

This paper reviews a candidate biomarker for ASD, the M50 auditory evoked response component, detected by magnetoencephalography (MEG) and presents a position on the roles and opportunities for such a biomarker, as well as converging evidence from allied imaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging, MRI and spectroscopy, MRS). Data is presented on prolonged M50 latencies in ASD as well as extension to include children with ASD with significant language and cognitive impairments in whom M50 latency delays are exacerbated. Modeling of the M50 latency by consideration of the properties of auditory pathway white matter is shown to be successful in typical development but challenged by heterogeneity in ASD; this, however, is capitalized upon to identify a distinct subpopulation of children with ASD whose M50 latencies lie well outside the range of values predictable from the typically developing model. Interestingly, this subpopulation is characterized by low levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Following from this, we discuss a potential use of the M50 latency in indicating “target engagement” acutely with administration of a GABA-B agonist, potentially distinguishing “responders” from “non-responders” with the implication of optimizing inclusion for clinical trials of such agents. Implications for future application, including potential evaluation of infants with genetic risk factors, are discussed. As such, the broad scope of potential of a representative candidate biological marker, the M50 latency, is introduced along with potential future applications.

This paper outlines a strategy for understanding brain dysfunction in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It is proposed that a multimodal approach (collection of brain structure, chemistry, and neuronal functional data) will identify IDD subpopulations who share a common disease pathway, and thus identify individuals with IDD who might ultimately benefit from specific treatments. After briefly demonstrating the need and potential for scope, examples from studies examining brain function and structure in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) illustrate how measures of brain neuronal function (from magnetoencephalography, MEG), brain structure (from magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, especially diffusion MRI), and brain chemistry (MR spectroscopy) can help us better understand the heterogeneity in ASD and form the basis of multivariate biological markers (biomarkers) useable to define clinical subpopulations. Similar approaches can be applied to understand brain dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) in general. In large part, this paper represents our endeavors as part of the CHOP/Penn NICHD-funded intellectual and developmental disabilities research center (IDDRC) over the past decade.

Recent Advances and Future Directions in Brain MR Imaging Studies in Schizophrenia: Toward Elucidating Brain Pathology and Developing Clinical Tools

Schizophrenia is a common severe psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 1% of general population through the life course. Historically, in Kraepelin's time, schizophrenia was a disease unit conceptualized as dementia praecox; however, since then, the disease concept has changed. Recent MRI studies had shown that the neuropathology of the brain in this disorder was characterized by mild progression before and after the onset of the disease, and that the brain alterations were relatively smaller than assumed. Although genetic factors contribute to the brain alterations in schizophrenia, which are thought to be trait differences, other changes include factors that are common in psychiatric diseases. Furthermore, it has been shown that the brain differences specific to schizophrenia were relatively small compared to other changes, such as those caused by brain development, aging, and gender. In addition, compared to the disease and participant factors, machine and imaging protocol differences could affect MRI signals, which should be addressed in multi-site studies. Recent advances in MRI modalities, such as multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and multimodal brain imaging analysis, may be candidates to sharpen the characterization of schizophrenia-specific factors and provide new insights. The Brain/MINDS Beyond Human Brain MRI (BMB-HBM) project has been launched considering the differences and noises irrespective of the disease pathologies and includes the future perspectives of MRI studies for various psychiatric and neurological disorders. The sites use restricted MRI machines and harmonized multi-modal protocols, standardized image preprocessing, and traveling subject harmonization. Data sharing to the public will be planned in FY 2024. In the future, we believe that combining a high-quality human MRI dataset with genetic data, randomized controlled trials, and MRI for non-human primates and animal models will enable us to understand schizophrenia, elucidate its neural bases and therapeutic targets, and provide tools for clinical application at bedside.

Altered maturation and atypical cortical processing of spoken sentences in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with widespread receptive language impairments, yet the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits are poorly understood. Neuroimaging has shown that processing of socially-relevant sounds, including speech and non-speech, is atypical in ASD. However, it is unclear how the presence of lexical-semantic meaning affects speech processing in ASD. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography data from individuals with ASD (N = 22, ages 7-17, 4 females) and typically developing (TD) peers (N = 30, ages 7-17, 5 females) during unattended listening to meaningful auditory speech sentences and meaningless jabberwocky sentences. After adjusting for age, ASD individuals showed stronger responses to meaningless jabberwocky sentences than to meaningful speech sentences in the same left temporal and parietal language regions where TD individuals exhibited stronger responses to meaningful speech. Maturational trajectories of meaningful speech responses were atypical in temporal, but not parietal, regions in ASD. Temporal responses were associated with ASD severity, while parietal responses were associated with aberrant involuntary attentional shifting in ASD. Our findings suggest a receptive speech processing dysfunction in ASD, wherein unattended meaningful speech elicits abnormal engagement of the language system, while unattended meaningless speech, filtered out in TD individuals, engages the language system through involuntary attention capture.

Recent updates of eye movement abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia: A scoping review

AIM

Although eye-tracking technology expands beyond capturing eye data just for the sole purpose of ensuring participants maintain their gaze at the presented fixation cross, gaze technology remains of less importance in clinical research. Recently, impairments in visual information encoding processes indexed by novel gaze metrics have been frequently reported in patients with schizophrenia. This work undertakes a scoping review of research on saccadic dysfunctions and exploratory eye movement deficits among patients with schizophrenia. It gathers promising pieces of evidence of eye movement abnormalities in attention-demanding tasks on the schizophrenia spectrum that have mounted in recent years and their outcomes as potential biological markers.

METHODS

The protocol was drafted based on PRISMA for scoping review guidelines. Electronic databases were systematically searched to identify articles published between 2010 and 2020 that examined visual processing in patients with schizophrenia and reported eye movement characteristics as potential biomarkers for this mental illness.

RESULTS

The use of modern eye-tracking instrumentation has been reported by numerous neuroscientific studies to successfully and non-invasively improve the detection of visual information processing impairments among the screened population at risk of and identified with schizophrenia.

CONCLUSIONS

Eye-tracking technology has the potential to contribute to the process of early intervention and more apparent separation of the diagnostic entities, being put together by the syndrome-based approach to the diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, context-processing paradigms should be conducted and reported in equally accessible publications to build comprehensive models.

MEG-PLAN: a clinical and technical protocol for obtaining magnetoencephalography data in minimally verbal or nonverbal children who have autism spectrum disorder

BACKGROUND

Neuroimaging research on individuals who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has historically been limited primarily to those with age-appropriate cognitive and language performance. Children with limited abilities are frequently excluded from such neuroscience research given anticipated barriers like tolerating the loud sounds associated with magnetic resonance imaging and remaining still during data collection. To better understand brain function across the full range of ASD there is a need to (1) include individuals with limited cognitive and language performance in neuroimaging research (non-sedated, awake) and (2) improve data quality across the performance range. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and test the feasibility of a clinical/behavioral and technical protocol for obtaining magnetoencephalography (MEG) data. Participants were 38 children with ASD (8-12 years) meeting the study definition of minimally verbal/nonverbal language. MEG data were obtained during a passive pure-tone auditory task.

RESULTS

Based on stakeholder feedback, the MEG Protocol for Low-language/cognitive Ability Neuroimaging (MEG-PLAN) was developed, integrating clinical/behavioral and technical components to be implemented by an interdisciplinary team (clinicians, behavior specialists, scientists, and technologists). Using MEG-PLAN, a 74% success rate was achieved for acquiring MEG data, with a 71% success rate for evaluable and analyzable data. Exploratory analyses suggested nonverbal IQ and adaptive skills were related to reaching the point of acquirable data. No differences in group characteristics were observed between those with acquirable versus evaluable/analyzable data. Examination of data quality (evaluable trial count) was acceptable. Moreover, results were reproducible, with high intraclass correlation coefficients for pure-tone auditory latency.

CONCLUSIONS

Children who have ASD who are minimally verbal/nonverbal, and often have co-occurring cognitive impairments, can be effectively and comfortably supported to complete an electrophysiological exam that yields valid and reproducible results. MEG-PLAN is a protocol that can be disseminated and implemented across research teams and adapted across technologies and neurodevelopmental disorders to collect electrophysiology and neuroimaging data in previously understudied groups of individuals.

EEG, MEG and neuromodulatory approaches to explore cognition: Current status and future directions

Neural oscillations and their association with brain states and cognitive functions have been object of extensive investigation over the last decades. Several electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) analysis approaches have been explored and oscillatory properties have been identified, in parallel with the technical and computational advancement. This review provides an up-to-date account of how EEG/MEG oscillations have contributed to the understanding of cognition. Methodological challenges, recent developments and translational potential, along with future research avenues, are discussed.

Maturation of hemispheric specialization for face encoding during infancy and toddlerhood

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Using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG), study findings show maturational changes to fusiform gyrus (FFG) activity when viewing faces.

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Earlier right FFG activity to face stimuli is associated with better social and cognitive ability.

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Stronger right- than left-hemisphere FFG responses to face stimuli are most evident after 1 year of age.

Little is known about the neural processes associated with attending to social stimuli during infancy and toddlerhood. Using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG), fusiform gyrus (FFG) activity while processing Face and Non-Face stimuli was examined in 46 typically developing infants 3 to 24 months old (28 males). Several findings indicated FFG maturation throughout the first two years of life. First, right FFG responses to Face stimuli decreased as a function of age. Second, hemispheric specialization to the face stimuli developed somewhat slowly, with earlier right than left FFG peak activity most evident after 1 year of age. Right FFG activity to Face stimuli was of clinical interest, with an earlier right FFG response associated with better performance on tests assessing social and cognitive ability. Building on the above, clinical studies examining maturational change in FFG activity (e.g., lateralization and speed) in infants at-risk for childhood disorders associated with social deficits are of interest to identify atypical FFG maturation before a formal diagnosis is possible.

A quarantined lodging stay: The buffering effect of service quality

How do guests feel during their stay at quarantine lodging? This study draws on terror management theory and social exclusion theory to synthesize a model that highlights guests' perceptions about their experience under enforced isolation. The model articulates guests' feeling of anxiety and loneliness, whereas quality of service presents warmth and care that activates an anxiety buffer mechanism that mitigates the effect of anxiety. In turn guests' level of anxiety is further explained by an interaction between their health status and the length of stay. Results point to a conduit for studying the dark side of hospitality, opening up research avenues that could help assess broader social behavioral changes during the global pandemic, while offering operators revelations for lodging management during a crisis.

Maturation of Auditory Cortex Neural Activity in Children and Implications for Auditory Clinical Markers in Diagnosis

Functional brain markers that can inform research on brain abnormalities, and especially those ready to facilitate clinical work on such abnormalities, will need to show not only considerable sensitivity and specificity but enough consistency with respect to developmental course that their validity in individual cases can be trusted. A challenge to establishing such markers may be individual differences in developmental course. The present study examined auditory cortex activity in children at an age when developmental changes to the auditory cortex 50 ms (M50) and 100 ms (M100) components are prominent to better understand the use of auditory markers in pediatric clinical research. MEG auditory encoding measures (auditory evoked fields in response to pure tone stimuli) were obtained from 15 typically developing children 6-8 years old, with measures repeated 18 and 36 months after the initial exam. MEG analyses were conducted in source space (i.e., brain location), with M50 and M100 sources identified in left and right primary/secondary auditory cortex (Heschl's gyrus). A left and right M50 response was observed at all times (Time 1, Time 2, Time 3), with M50 latency (collapsing across hemisphere) at Time 3 (77 ms) 10 ms earlier than Time 1 (87 ms; p < 0.001) and with M50 responses on average (collapsing across time) 5 ms earlier in the right (80 ms) than left hemisphere (85 ms; p < 0.05). In the majority of children, however, M50 latency changes were not constant across the three-year period; for example, whereas in some children a ~10 ms latency reduction was observed from Time 1 to Time 2, in other children a ~10 ms latency reduction was observed from Time 2 to Time 3. M100 responses were defined by a significant "peak" of detected power with magnetic field topography opposite M50 and occurring 50-100 ms later than the M50. Although M100s were observed in a few children at Time 1 and Time 2 (and more often in the right than left hemisphere), M100s were not observed in the majority of children except in the right hemisphere at Time 3. In sum, longitudinal findings showed large between- and within-subject variability in rate of change as well as time to reach neural developmental milestones (e.g., presence of a detectable M100 response). Findings also demonstrated the need to examine whole-brain activity, given hemisphere differences in the rate of auditory cortex maturation. Pediatric research will need to take such normal variability into account when seeking clinical auditory markers.

Neurophysiological Face Processing Deficits in Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia: An MEG Study

BACKGROUND

Neuropsychological studies have revealed that patients with schizophrenia (SZ) have facial recognition difficulties and a reduced visual evoked N170 response to human faces. However, detailed neurophysiological evidence of this face processing deficit in SZ with a higher spatial resolution has yet to be acquired. In this study, we recorded visual evoked magnetoencephalography (MEG) and examined whether M170 (a magnetic counterpart of the N170) activity deficits are specific to faces in patients with chronic SZ.

METHODS

Participants were 26 patients with SZ and 26 healthy controls (HC). The M170 responses to faces and cars were recorded from whole-head MEG, and global field power over each temporal cortex was analyzed. The distributed M170 sources were also localized using a minimum-norm estimation (MNE) method. Correlational analyses between M170 responses and demographics/symptoms were performed.

RESULTS

As expected, the M170 was significantly smaller in the SZ compared with the HC group in response to faces, but not to cars (faces: p = 0.01; cars: p = 0.55). The MNE analysis demonstrated that while the M170 was localized over the fusiform face area (FFA) in the HC group, visual-related brain regions other than the FFA were strongly activated in the SZ group in both stimulus conditions. The severity of negative symptoms was negatively correlated with M170 power (rho = -0.47, p = 0.01) in SZ. Within HC, there was a significant correlation between age and the M170 responses to faces averaged for both hemispheres (rho = 0.60, p = 0.001), while such a relationship was not observed in patients with SZ (rho = 0.09, p = 0.67).

CONCLUSION

The present study showed specific reductions in the M170 response to human faces in patients with SZ. Our findings could suggest that SZ is characterized by face processing deficits that are associated with the severity of negative symptoms. Thus, we suggest that social cognition impairments in SZ might, at least in part, be caused by this functional face processing deficit.

Long-Term Test-Retest Reliability of Auditory Gamma Oscillations Between Different Clinical EEG Systems

OBJECTIVE

There is increasing interest in the utility of gamma-band activity for assessing various brain functions, including perception, language, memory, and cognition. The auditory steady-state response (ASSR) involves neural activity in the brain elicited by trains of a click sound, and its maximum response is obtained at 40 Hz (40-Hz ASSR). Abnormalities of the 40-Hz ASSR are also widely reported in patients with schizophrenia. Thus, the test-retest reliability of the ASSR is important for its clinical and translational application. However, there are only limited studies reporting the short-term reliability between acquisitions at two time points made using the same electroencephalogram (EEG) system. Furthermore, the long-term reliability between multiple EEG systems and the reliability of spontaneous gamma activity are unknown but are crucial for multicenter collaborative research.

METHODS

We examined the long-term test-retest reliability of 40-Hz ASSR oscillatory activities indexed by the phase locking factor (PLF), evoked power, and (non-phase-locked) induced power between two clinical 19-electrode EEG systems [recorded twice for EEG-1 (time1 and time2) and EEG-2 (time3 and time4)] at four time points from 14 healthy controls over a duration of 5 months. Test-retest reliability was examined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).

RESULTS

Both PLF and evoked power showed good to excellent ICCs (>0.60), mainly in the Fz-electrode, both within each EEG system-EEG-1 [(time1 vs. time2) PLF: ICC = 0.66, evoked power: ICC = 0.88] and EEG-2 [(time3 vs. time4) PLF: ICC = 0.82, evoked power: ICC = 0.77]-and between the two EEG systems [(EEG-1 vs. EEG-2) PLF: ICC = 0.73, evoked power: ICC = 0.84]. In contrast, induced power showed the highest (excellent) ICC between the two EEG systems (ICC = 0.95) mainly in the Cz-electrode. For PLF, the Fz-electrode showed better test-retest reliability across all EEG recordings than the Cz-electrode (Fz: ICC = 0.67, Cz: ICC = 0.63), whereas we found similar excellent reproducibility across all EEG recordings from both electrodes for evoked power (Fz: ICC = 0.79, Cz: ICC = 0.77) and induced power (Fz: ICC = 0.79, Cz: ICC = 0.80).

CONCLUSION

The 40-Hz ASSR oscillatory activities, including induced power, showed excellent test-retest reliability, even when using different EEG systems over a duration of 5 months. These findings confirm the utility of the 40-Hz ASSR as a reliable clinical and translatable biomarker for multicenter collaborative research.

Prospects for Future Methodological Development and Application of Magnetoencephalography Devices in Psychiatry

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging tool that can record activity from the entire cortex on the order of milliseconds. MEG has been used to investigate numerous psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, dementia, and autism spectrum disorder. Although several review papers on the subject have been published, perspectives and opinions regarding the use of MEG in psychiatric research have primarily been discussed from a psychiatric research point of view. Owing to a newly developed MEG sensor, the use of MEG devices will soon enter a critical period, and now is a good time to discuss the future of MEG use in psychiatric research. In this paper, we will discuss MEG devices from a methodological point of view. We will first introduce the utilization of MEG in psychiatric research and the development of its technology. Then, we will describe the principle theory of MEG and common algorithms, which are useful for applying MEG tools to psychiatric research. Next, we will consider three topics-child psychiatry, resting-state networks, and cortico-subcortical networks-and address the future use of MEG in psychiatry from a broader perspective. Finally, we will introduce the newly developed device, the optically-pumped magnetometer, and discuss its future use in MEG systems in psychiatric research from a methodological point of view. We believe that state-of-the-art electrophysiological tools, such as this new MEG system, will further contribute to our understanding of the core pathology in various psychiatric disorders and translational research.

Identifying Clinically and Functionally Distinct Groups Among Healthy Controls and First Episode Psychosis Patients by Clustering on EEG Patterns

OBJECTIVE

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is considered as a promising biomarker that can inform future therapeutic studies. However, there is a large variability among patients with first episode psychosis (FEP). Also, most studies report a single electrode site and on comparing case-control group differences. Few have taken advantage of the full wealth of multi-channel EEG signals to examine observable patterns. None, to our knowledge, have used machine learning (ML) approaches to investigate neurophysiological derived subgroups with distinct cognitive and functional outcome characteristics. In this study, we applied ML to empirically stratify individuals into homogeneous subgroups based on multi-channel MMN data. We then characterized the functional, cognitive, and clinical profiles of these neurobiologically derived subgroups. We also explored the underlying low frequency range responses (delta, theta, alpha) during MMN.

METHODS

Clinical, neurocognitive, functioning data of 33 healthy controls and 20 FEP patients were collected. 90% of the patients had 6-month follow-up data. Neurocognition, social cognition, and functioning measures were assessed using the NCCB Cognitive Battery, the Awareness of Social Inference Test, UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment, and Multnomah Community Ability Scale. Symptom severity was collected using the PANSS. MMN amplitude and single-trial derived low frequency activity across 24 frontocentral channels were used as main variables in the ML k-means clustering analyses.

RESULTS

We found a consistent pattern of two distinctive subgroups. We labeled them as "better functioning" and "poorer functioning" clusters, respectively. Each subgroup can be mapped onto either better or poorer clinical, cognitive, and functioning profiles. Also, we identified two subgroups of patients: one showed improved MMN and one showed worsening of MMN over time. Patients with improved MMN had better follow-up clinical, cognitive, and functioning profile than those with worsening MMN. Among the low frequency bands, delta frequency appeared to be the most relevant to the observed MMN responses in all individuals. However, higher delta responses were not necessarily associated with a better functioning profile, suggesting that delta frequency alone may not be useful in clinical characterization.

CONCLUSIONS

The ML approach could be a robust tool to explore heterogeneity and facilitate the identification of neurobiological homogeneous subgroups in FEP.