# Deviant Synchronization of Neural Functions in Schizophrenia > **NIH VA I01** · MINNEAPOLIS VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · — ## Abstract Perceptual distortions in the form of hallucinations and illusions are defining characteristics of psychotic psychopathology. Recent evidence suggests that the formation of percepts is directly influenced by cycling neural activity (i.e., oscillations) captured in brain wave recordings and reflective of processes by which brain circuits encode stimuli. The pace of the resting state alpha cycle (~8-12 Hz) appears to govern the speed at which visual input is sampled with faster alpha oscillations yielding more accurate visual perception. But it is unknown whether abnormal oscillations evident during the brain’s default mode can account for the distorted perceptions that characterize psychosis. The current project is an investigation of the role of default mode oscillations in perceptual dysfunction in schizophrenia, and tests whether altering oscillations can improve visual perception. The overarching hypothesis is that schizophrenia is associated with slowed alpha oscillations that contribute to visual perceptual dysfunction evident during experimental tasks and real-world situations where illusions and hallucinations occur. To investigate alpha oscillations as a possible mechanism of reality distortion in psychosis the proposed work involves the following aims. First, electroencephalography (EEG) will be used to measure individual alpha peak frequency (IAPF) in people with schizophrenia and healthy controls to determine how the speed of default mode resting state oscillations is relevant to visual perceptual functions commonly disturbed in schizophrenia. Data from a binocular rivalry task that samples endogenous processes of percept formation will be used to test the hypothesis that individual alpha peak frequency (IAPF) reflects the rate of sampling of visual information and determines the pace of percept formation. It is expected that slowed alpha oscillations in schizophrenia reflect impaired neural functions that underly percept formation and limit the ability to discern visual stimuli. It is also predicted that slowed alpha oscillations in schizophrenia are related to cognitive impairment, clinical symptomatology, and real-world visual distortions in the disorder. Functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) data will be simultaneously collected with EEG to isolate regions of the thalamus and occipital cortex that are associated with alpha oscillations. fMRI will be used to test the hypothesis that slowed alpha reflects reduced thalamic-cortical connectivity in schizophrenia. Second, advanced time-frequency (TF) analysis techniques of EEG will be used to examine how default mode oscillations relate to the synchronization of neural responses during the processing of visual stimuli. This will help reveal how IAPF influences visual perceptual disturbances in schizophrenia. In addition to showing that decreased speed of alpha oscillations is associated with decreased synchronization of oscillations to briefly displayed visual stimuli (i.e., DS-CPT), it ... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10925897 - **Project number:** 2I01CX001843-05A1 - **Recipient organization:** MINNEAPOLIS VA MEDICAL CENTER - **Principal Investigator:** Scott R Sponheim - **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** VA - **Fiscal year:** 2024 - **Award amount:** — - **Award type:** 2 - **Project period:** 2019-01-01 → 2028-06-30 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10925897 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10925897, Deviant Synchronization of Neural Functions in Schizophrenia (2I01CX001843-05A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10925897. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*