Spatiotemporal characteristics of MEG and EEG entrainment with photic stimulation in schizophrenia

We examined the periodic synchronous characteristic response to photic stimulation in schizophrenia using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). We tested whether neural synchronization deficits were present in subjects with schizophrenia using photic stimulation to evaluate the frequency entrainment in 18 normal subjects and 19 schizophrenia patients. A conventional vertical-type 160-channel MEG (PQ1160C, Yokogawa Electric Corporation) was used. Photic stimulation was at frequencies from 8 to 10.5 Hz at intervals of 0.5 Hz. There were ten stimuli at each frequency, and each lasted 10 seconds. The power spectrum at each site was based on the international 10/20 derivation. The power spectrum in schizophrenia patients was smaller than that in normal subjects at each site. A gender difference was observed in normal subjects, but not in schizophrenia patients. MEG, like EEG, is an effective method for research on neuropathy of the psyche.