Disruptions in small-world cortical functional connectivity network during an auditory oddball paradigm task in patients with schizophrenia

P300 deficits in patients with schizophrenia have previously been investigated using EEGs recorded during auditory oddball tasks. However, small-world cortical functional networks during auditory oddball tasks and their relationships with symptom severity scores in schizophrenia have not yet been investigated. In this study, the small-world characteristics of source-level functional connectivity networks of EEG responses elicited by an auditory oddball paradigm were evaluated using two representative graph-theoretical measures, clustering coefficient and path length. EEG signals from 34 patients with schizophrenia and 34 healthy controls were recorded while each subject was asked to attend to oddball tones. The results showed reduced clustering coefficients and increased path lengths in patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that the small-world functional network is disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, the negative and cognitive symptom components of positive and negative symptom scales were negatively correlated with the clustering coefficient and positively correlated with path length, demonstrating that both indices are indicators of symptom severity in patients with schizophrenia. Our study results suggest that disrupted small-world characteristics are potential biomarkers for patients with schizophrenia.