Distributed neurophysiological dynamics link perception, action, and language in schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances in both perception and expression that profoundly impair social functioning, yet these domains are typically studied in isolation. Predictive processing theories suggest that such symptoms may arise from abnormal updating of internal models, but the neural mechanisms linking perceptual and expressive dysfunction remain unclear. Using magnetoencephalography during multisensory perception and motor tasks, we tested whether beta-band activity (15-30 Hz), a neural signal implicated in predictive control, provides a shared substrate across domains. Compared to healthy individuals, patients with schizophrenia showed attenuated event-related modulation of beta activity, including weaker beta suppression during sensory processing and delayed or reduced post-movement beta rebound. These abnormalities were associated with a widened audiovisual temporal binding window, indicating atypical multisensory integration. Multivariate analyses further revealed that reduced beta modulation across sensory and motor systems covaried with impoverished semantic diversity, simplified syntactic structure in natural speech, and greater clinical symptom burden. Notably, beta abnormalities emerged as distributed latent patterns spanning sensory, motor, and frontotemporal regions. Together, these findings identify diminished event-related beta modulation as a common neural signature linking disrupted multisensory integration, action monitoring, and language organization in schizophrenia. We situate perceptual and expressive impairments within a unified framework of predictive dysfunction and advance a mechanistically grounded account that highlights beta dynamics as a promising target for future mechanistic and translational studies in psychosis. Significance StatementSchizophrenia disrupts both how people perceive the world and how they express their thoughts, yet these symptoms are usually studied separately. Using magnetoencephalography during multisensory and motor tasks, we identify a shared neural mechanism linking these domains: reduced event-related modulation of beta-band (15-30 Hz) activity, a signal implicated in predictive control. Compared to healthy individuals, patients showed diminished beta changes during sensory processing and movement completion, suggesting reduced flexibility in updating internal models. Importantly, this neural pattern covaried with abnormal audiovisual binding, disorganized natural speech, and greater clinical severity. These findings reveal distributed beta modulation as a cross-domain neural marker of predictive dysfunction, offering a unified framework for understanding perceptual and expressive disturbances in schizophrenia.