Language Processing as a Window into Circuit Dysfunctions in Schizophrenia: A Magnetoencephalographical and Computaitonal Approach

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Joachim Gross; Professor Dr. Peter Krüger; Professor Dr. Peter Uhlhaas
• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560652053

In this project, we will examine language in patients with schizophrenia using a combination of brain measurements and computational analysis. Language abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia manifest in disordered thoughts, auditory hallucinations and difficulties in language perception. Recent work in psychology and computer science has provided novel insights into how the brain processes language which can be applied to schizophrenia with the goal to understand the origins of altered language processing and develop novel diagnostic procedures. In the current project, we will recruit a sample of 40 patients with schizophrenia who are currently receiving antipsychotic medication and 40 healthy control participants. Both groups will be presented an audiobook (Le Petit Prince) for one hour during which brain activity will be measured with Magnetoencephalography (MEG). In particular, we are interested to examine whether changes in rhythms of neural activity that the brain generates, so-called "oscillations", may be related to patients’ difficulties in perceiving and generating language. Previous work has shown that language is intimately related to the way these oscillations are generated by the brain, suggesting that the inherent rhythmic structure of language is reflected in the ongoing oscillations of the brain. In the second part of the project, we will investigate the neuronal correlates of speech production in patients with schizophrenia. For this purpose, participants answer certain questions, e.g. 'What does a typical weekend look like for you?'. In the speech perception condition, participants will listen to audio recordings of their own voice while in the speech production condition, MEG-activity is recorded while participants respond to the questions. Neural oscillations and the underlying networks are then compared between the two conditions to identify the neural correlates of speech production. In the final part of the project, we will obtain speech recordings from schizophrenia patients and controls that will be analyzed for formal thought disorder using clinical ratings. Moreover, we will use a natural language processing approach, which uses computational methods from artificial intelligence to extract linguistic features, such as discourse coherence and syntactic complexity. Speech production will then be related to MEG-data to establish relations between clinical signs of disordered language and physiological parameters.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants