Thienel, R., Bender, S., Oades, R. D., Dittmann-.Balcar, A., Rao, M. L., & Schall, U. A. (2001). Auditory gating, Neuropsychology and D2-occupamcy in a one-year follow-up treatment study on schizophrenia.. Schizophrenia Research, 49, (supplement), 210.

Introduction:
Auditory gating was investigated in 46 first to third episode patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) -- they were followed up for one year.

Methods:
Gating measures were the fronto-central difference waveforms (non-target- minus target-elicited P300 evoked potentials) preceded by a 100 ms prepulse in a Go/non-go auditory discrimination. [ This component is called the prepulse - induced non- target positivity, PINTP, see Bender et al., 1999]

Results:
1) At therapy onset, patients showed a significantly smaller PINTP vs. 27 healthy controls.
2) Over one year patients' PINTP increased significantly, in association with imporoved clinical ratings (PANSS: difficulty in abstract thinking, conceptual disorganization, lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation).
3) Over the same period the increase / trend to normalization of PINTP also correlated with improved Tower-of-London performance, and
4) with the course of neuroleptic dopamine - D2 binding assessed by haloperidol displacement in an in vitro striatal binding assay (Oades et al., 2000a; and Oades et al. 2000b).

Conclusions:
These findings indicate that neuroleptic dopamine-D2 receptor blockade is associated with improved fronto-temporal information processing in the brain during the course of treatment.. (Support: DFG Scha628/4-1)