New efforts to develop treatments for cognitive dysfunction in mental illnesses would
benefit enormously from biomarkers that provide sensitive and reliable measures of
the neural events underlying cognition. Here, we evaluate the promise of event-related
potentials (ERPs) as biomarkers of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. We conclude
that ERPs have several desirable properties: 1) they provide a direct measure of electrical
activity during neurotransmission; 2) their high temporal resolutions make it possible
to measure neural synchrony and oscillations; 3) they are relatively inexpensive and
convenient to record; 4) animal models are readily available for several ERP components;
5) decades of research has established the sensitivity and reliability of ERP measures
in psychiatric illnesses; and 6) feasibility of large N (>500) multisite studies has
been demonstrated for key measures. Consequently, ERPs may be useful for identifying
endophenotypes and defining treatment targets, for evaluating new compounds in animals
and in humans, and for identifying individuals who are good candidates for early interventions
or for specific treatments. However, several challenges must be overcome before ERPs
gain widespread use as biomarkers in schizophrenia research, and we make several recommendations
for the research that is necessary to develop and validate ERP-based biomarkers that
can have a real impact on treatment development.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 26, 2010
Accepted:
September 2,
2010
Received in revised form:
August 16,
2010
Received:
March 13,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
