Heightened sensitivity to panic-related sounds with reduced sensitivity to neutral sounds in preattentive processing among panic patients.

BACKGROUND

Hypervigilance to panic-related stimuli is believed to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of panic disorder. The current event-related potential study explored whether this hyperresponsivity occurred in the absence of focused attention.

METHODS

Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to panic-related vs. neutral deviants were assessed in 15 medication-free panic patients without agoraphobia and 16 healthy controls using a reverse-standard-deviant paradigm.

RESULTS

Panic patients relative to healthy controls exhibited an enhanced MMN in response to panic-related sounds but a reduced MMN in response to neutral sounds. Furthermore, MMN responses were delayed in panic patients compared to healthy controls, irrespective of stimulus type.

LIMITATION: The sample size is relatively small.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data provide evidence that panic disorder was associated with an increased sensitivity to panic-related changes, accompanied by a reduced sensitivity to other acoustic changes as well as a general slow-down of cognitive processing during the preattentive processing stage.