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

Abstract 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.