Mismatch responses and deviance detection in N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction and developmental models of schizophrenia

Reductions in the size of the mismatch negativity (MMN), an event-related potential component elicited in response to unexpected stimuli, are arguably the most robust neurophysiological findings in schizophrenia. Several studies have now demonstrated that 'true' human-like deviance detection mismatch responses (MMRs) can be generated in the rodent brain and therefore that animal models can be used to examine the neurobiology of schizophrenia-like MMR impairments and investigate the efficacy of new treatments in addressing underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Two broad categories of animal models have been examined for schizophrenia-like MMRs: models involving N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction, and models involving an insult or exposure during development. While these models have been shown to exhibit reductions in MMRs, it is still unclear whether or not these reductions involve changes to neural adaptation to repetitive stimuli or whether they reflect impairments in the response to unexpected deviations in regular patterns.