Original articleCompromised late-stage motion processing in schizophrenia
Section snippets
Subjects
Thirty-four schizophrenia patients participated in this study. The patients had been hospitalized about 1 year earlier and, at the time they were tested, all were outpatients in various degrees of remission from their psychosis. All patients met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Consensus diagnoses were made independently by experienced clinicians based on a review of a standardized interview (Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV-SCID-P) conducted by trained
Velocity discrimination at high contrast
Schizophrenia patients showed significantly higher mean Weber thresholds for velocity discrimination than normal control subjects when the contrast of moving targets was set at 20 times the contrast detection threshold (Figure 2). Statistical analysis yields highly significant difference between the thresholds of the two groups (t(50,1) = 3.17, p < .005).
Velocity discrimination at low contrast
Figure 3 shows the Weber thresholds of velocity discrimination when the contrast was set at 4 times the contrast detection threshold. The
Discussion
Velocity discrimination thresholds at both low- and high-contrast levels were significantly elevated in schizophrenia patients compared with normal control subjects. The independence of the velocity discrimination deficit from contrast provides evidence relevant to the specific stages of motion processing implicated in schizophrenia.
Although contrast is vital to many attributes of vision, its roles differ in various stages of visual processing. In the motion pathway, neural responses to
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grant Nos. MH 61824, 31154, 31340, 46987, 01020; a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award; a Rappaport Mental Health Scholar Award; and grants from the William T. Milton Foundation of Harvard University and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.
We thank Drs. Steven Matthysse, Ken Nakayama, and Charles Stromeyer III and Ms. Cinnamon Bidwell for their help in various aspects of this study.
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