Journal of International Psychiatry

【Abstract】 Objective To investigate the changes of electroencephalogram (EEG) in prefrontal lobe of first-episode schizophrenia patients using nonlinear complexity measure. Methods The electroencephalogram (EEG) of FP1 (left frontal pole), FPz (middle frontal pole) and FP2 (right frontal pole) from 40 schizophreni patients and 32 normal adults were measured by Lempel-Ziv complexity . Then, the comparison between groups were performed.Results The complexity of FP1, FPz and FP2 in the first-episode schizophrenia group was significantly higher than that in the normal control group(P values were 0.016, 0.007 and 0.005 respectively).There were no significant differences between FP1, FPz and FP2 in the first episode schizophrenia group (P <0.05).Meanwhile, there was no significant difference between FP1 and FPz, FP2 and FPz (P> 0.05), but with significant difference between FP1 and FPz (P> 0.05).Conclusion The EEG complexity in prefrontal lobe of patients with first-episode schizophrenia is significantly higher than that of normal people, and the asymmetry difference existed on both sides of the anterior frontal lobe, Which can be a certain extent for the diagnosis of schizophrenia theory basis.

【Key words】 First-episode schizophrenia; EEG; Complexity; Pre-frontal lobe; Lempel-Ziv