Brain dysfunction in psychiatric patients during music perception measured by EEG mapping: relation to motor dysfunction and influence of neuroleptic drugs

We report here our findings on music perception obtained as a companion study to the investigation with 16-channel EEG mapping in psychiatric patients during motor activation, published recently elsewhere. We decided to add on a study of this functional circuit, since there is evidence that it is disturbed in various psychiatric patient groups (another “functio laesa”). Involved in the study were 23 male and 25 female schizophrenics, 11 male and 18 female non-endogenously depressed patients (not presently under medication, i.e. drug-naive or wash-out period from 1 week to 17 years), 26 male and 37 female endogenously depressed patients (medicated with tri- or tetracyclic antidepressants and/or benzodiazepines; no lithium), and 22 male and 17 female control subjects (i.e. n=179). We compared resting conditions after a special relaxation procedure with three music perception tasks: (1) a standardised rumba rhythm generated by a keyboard and delivered binaurally by earphones, (2) the same as an arpeggio in D major, and (3) the same as an arpeggio with a tonic-subdominant-dominant cadence. Major results were obtained in the delta and alpha frequency bands, yielding signs of “diffuse hyperactivation”, most prominent in schizophrenic males, and not observed to a similar extent in any other patient group or in normal controls. Interestingly, there were major sex differences, yielding a more diffuse EEG activation pattern in normal females than in males and thus possibly obscuring signs of brain function diffusion in female patients. Viewing our broader evidence of similar brain dysfunction when examining motor functional circuits, especially in schizophrenics, these findings provide further evidence of a brain disorganization with lack of laterality/diffusion which may be found in subgroups of these patients and not in other psychiatric disorders. In schizophrenic patients, these EEG signs of “diffuse hyperactivation” on simple motor and/or music stimulation were reduced to nearly normal by neuroleptic medication. The latter finding may contribute to possible clinical applications of EEG mapping, considering the EEG's unique suitability for long-term brain function monitoring. Other neuroimaging methods like SPECT and PET should be used for additional “external validation”.