Left Temporal Lobe Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

A right ear advantage in healthy adults for perceiving consonant-vowels was associated with a left-lateralized ERP component peaking at 200 milliseconds after syllable onset (N2). Patients with schizophrenia failed to show either of these task-dependent asymmetries, which may indicate a dysfunction of left temporal regions involved in phonetic classification. A task-independent asymmetric reduction of a later positive potential in patients with schizophrenia resembled left temporal P3 reductions reported for auditory oddball tasks.