Attenuation of P300 amplitude of auditory-evoked potentials by theta burst stimulation over left prefrontal in schizophrenia

This paper presents the alteration of P300 and N2b during the auditory oddball protocol prior to and following theta-burst stimulation (TBS) over left prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Effects of repetitive continuous TBS (cTBS) on selective attention cognitive process were investigated by Event-related potentials (ERPs) in 10 subjects with schizophrenia. TBS trains were delivered over the left prefrontal cortex (F3). Amplitude of P300 and N2b were measured during the auditory oddball protocol prior to and following TBS. Our results show that the effects of TBS differ in each component. The amplitude of P300 significantly decreased after TBS, typically in the centro-parietal regions, while the amplitude of N2b changed slightly. Our results support that left prefrontal cortex plays an important role in processing selective attention. Furthermore, auditory P300 could be a potential approach to measure the effects of cTBS on schizophrenia. Specially, we propose that traditional cTBS may not a promising way for the therapy of schizophrenia.