Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Disturbances of Agency and Ownership in Schizophrenia: An Auditory Verbal Event Related Potentials Study

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Brain Topography Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A ‘sense of self’ is essentially the ability to distinguish between self-generated and external stimuli. It consists of at least two very basic senses: a sense of agency and a sense of ownership. Disturbances seem to provide a basic deficit in many psychiatric diseases. The aim of our study was to manipulate those qualities separately in 28 patients with schizophrenia (14 auditory hallucinators and 14 non-hallucinators) and 28 healthy controls (HC) and to investigate the effects on the topographies and the power of the event-related potential (ERP). We performed a 76-channel EEG while the participants performed the task as in our previous paper. We computed ERPs and difference maps for the conditions and compared the amount of agency and ownership between the HC and the patients. Furthermore, we compared the global field power and the topographies of these effects. Our data showed effects of agency and ownership in the healthy controls and the hallucinator group and to a lesser degree in the non-hallucinator group. We found a reduction of the N100 during the presence of agency, and a bilateral temporal negativity related to the presence of ownership. For the agency effects, we found significant differences between HC and the patients. Contrary to the expectations, our findings were more pronounced in non-hallucinators, suggesting a more profoundly disturbed sense of agency compared to hallucinators. A contemporary increase of global field power in both patient groups indicates a compensatory recruitment of other mechanisms not normally associated with the processing of agency and ownership.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blakemore SJ, Wolpert D, Frith CD (1998) Central cancellation of self-produced tickle sensation. Nat Neurosci 1(7):635–640

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brandeis D, Naylor H, Halliday R, Callaway E, Yano L (1992) Scopolamine effects on visual information processing, attention, and event-related potential map latencies. Psychophysiology 29(3):315–336

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg I (1978) Efference copy and corollary discharge: implications for thinking and its disorders. Schizophr Bull 4:636–640

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ford J, Mathalon DH (2005) Corollary Discharge dysfunction in schizophrenia: can it explain auditory hallucinations? Int J Psychopathol 58:179–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford JM, Mathalon DH, Heinks T, Kalba S, Faustman WO, Roth WT (2001a) Neurophysiological evidence of corollary discharge dysfunction in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 158:2069–2071

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ford JM, Mathalon DH, Kalba S, Whitfield S, Faustman WO, Roth WT (2001b) Cortical responsiveness during talking and listening in schizophrenia: an event-related brain potential study. Biol Psychiatry 50:540–549

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith C (1992) The cognitive neuropsychology of schizophrenia. Erlbaum, Hilsdale

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S (2000) Philosophical conceptions of self: implications for cognitive science. Trends Cogn Sci 4:14–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haddock G, McCarron J, Tarrier N, Faragher EB (1999) Scales to measure dimensions of hallucinations and delusions: the psychotic symptom rating scale (PSYRATS). Psychol Med 29:879–889

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heinks-Maldonado TH, Mathalon DH, Gray M, Ford JM (2005) Fine-tuning of auditory cortex during speech production. Psychophysiology 42:180–190

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heinks-Maldonado TH, Mathalon DH, Houde JF, Gray M, Faustman WO, Ford JM (2007) Relationship of imprecise corollary discharge in schizophrenia to auditory hallucinations. Arch Gen Psychiatry 64(3):286–296

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman RE, Hawkins KA, Gueorguieva R, Boutros NN, Rachid F, Carroll K, Krystal JH (2003) Transcranial magnetic stimulation of left temporoparietal cortex and medication-resistant auditory hallucinations. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60(1):49–56

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubl D, Koenig T, Strik W, Federspiel A, Kreis R, Boesch C, Maier SE, Schroth G, Lovblad K, Dierks T (2004) Pathways that make voices: white matter changes in auditory hallucinations. Arch Gen Psychiatry 61(7):658–668

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubl D, Dougoud-Chauvin V, Zeller M, Federspiel A, Boesch C, Stirk W, Dierks T, Koenig T (2010) Structural analysis of Heschl’s gyrus in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations. Neuropsychobiology 61:1–9

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubl D, Schneider RC, Kottlow M, Kindler J, Strik W, Dierks T, Koenig T (2014) Agency and ownership are independent components of ‘sensing the self’ in the auditory-verbal domain. Brain Topogr 27(5):672–682

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jung TP, Makeig S, Westerfield M, Townsend J, Courchesne E, Sejnowski TJ (2000) Removal of eye activity artifacts from visual event-related potentials in normal and clinical subjects. Clin Neurophysiol 111:1745–1758

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kay SR, Fiszbein A, Opler L (1987) The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). Schizophr Bull 13(2):261–272

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig T, Kottlow M, Stein M, Melie-Garcia L (2011) Ragu: a free tool for the analysis of EEG and MEG event-related scalp field data using global randomization statistics. Comput Intell Neurosci 2011:938925

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leucht S, Wahlbeck K, Harmann J, Kissling J (2003) New generation antipsychotics versus low-potency conventional antipsychotics: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 361:1581–1589

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leucht S, Samara M, Heres S, Patel MX, Woods SW, Davis JM (2014) Dose equivalents for second-generation antipsychotics—the minimum effective dose method. Schizophr Bull 40(2):314–326

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Macphee GJ, Crowther JA, McAlpine CH (1988) A simple screening test for hearing impairment in elderly patients. Age Ageing 17:347–351

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Michel CM, Koenig T, Brandeis D (2009) Electrical neuroimaging in the time domain. In: Michel CM, Koenig T, Brandeis D, Gianotti LRR, Wackermann J (eds) Electrical neuroimaging. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 111–143

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Moore J, Turner D, Corlett P, Arana F, Morgan H, Absalom A, Adapa R, de Wit S, Everitt J, Gardner J, Pigott J, Haggard P, Fletcher P (2011) Ketamine administration in healthy volunteers reproduces aberrant agency experiences associated with schizophrenia. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 6:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Oestreich LKL, Mifsud NG, Ford JM, Roach BJ, Mathalon DH, Whitford TJ (2015) Subnormal sensory attenuation to self-generated speech in schizotypy: electrophysiological evidence for a ‘continuum of psychosis’. Int J Psychopathol 97:131–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parnas J, Handest P (2003) Phenomenology of anomalous self-experience in early schizophrenia. Compr Psychiatry 44(2):121–134

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perez V, Ford J, Roach B, Loewy R, Stuart B, Vinogradov S, Mathalon D (2012) Auditory cortex responsiveness during talking and listening: Early illness schizophrenia and patients at clinical high-risk for psychosis. Schizophr Bull 38(6):1219–1224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry RW (1950) Neural basis of the spontaneous optokinetic response produced by visual inversion. J Comp Physiol Psychol 43(6):482–489

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strik WK, Fallgatter AJ, Brandeis D, Pascual-Marqui RD (1998) Three-dimensional tomography of event-related potentials during response inhibition: evidence for phasic frontal lobe activation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 108:406–413

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Von Holst E (1954) Relations between the central nervous system and the peripheral organs. Br J Anim Behav 2:89–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Helmholtz H (1866) Handbuch der physiologischen Optik. Voss, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth M, Horn H, Koenig T, Razafimandimby A, Stein M, Mueller T, Federspiel A, Meier B, Dierks T, Strik W (2008) The early context effect reflects activity in the temporo-prefrontal semantic system: evidence from electrical neuroimaging of abstract and concrete word reading. Neuroimage 42:423–436

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wirth M, Jann K, Dierks T, Federspiel A, Wiest R, Horn H (2011) Semantic memory involvement in the default mode network: a functional neuroimaging study using independent component analysis. Neuroimage 54:3057–3066

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Yvonne Fontana and XiaXia Zang for assistance in the EEG setup.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, 3000, Bern 60, Switzerland

    Tim Bühler, Jochen Kindler, Rahel C. Schneider, Werner Strik, Thomas Dierks, Daniela Hubl & Thomas Koenig

  2. University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Jochen Kindler

Authors
  1. Tim Bühler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jochen Kindler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rahel C. Schneider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Werner Strik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Thomas Dierks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Daniela Hubl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Thomas Koenig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniela Hubl.

Additional information

Tim Bühler and Jochen Kindler shared first authorship.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bühler, T., Kindler, J., Schneider, R.C. et al. Disturbances of Agency and Ownership in Schizophrenia: An Auditory Verbal Event Related Potentials Study. Brain Topogr 29, 716–727 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-016-0495-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-016-0495-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation