Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 55, Issue 8, 15 April 2004, Pages 834-841
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Compromised late-stage motion processing in schizophrenia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2003.12.024Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Visual motion processing is compromised in schizophrenia, as shown in deficient velocity discrimination. Processing of motion signals comprises progressive stages along the geniculate-striate-extrastriate-cortex pathway. Based on neurophysiologic and brain lesion studies, a velocity discrimination deficit can implicate early-stage motion processing if it is contrast-dependent or late-stage motion processing if it is contrast-independent.

Methods

To determine which stage underlies the deficient velocity discrimination in schizophrenia, we examined the effects of visual contrast on velocity discrimination. We measured velocity discrimination thresholds in schizophrenia patients (n = 34) and normal control subjects (n = 17) at both low and high contrasts, using each subject's contrast detection threshold to equate contrast levels.

Results

Schizophrenia patients showed poor velocity discrimination that improved little with high contrast, whereas normal control subjects showed enhanced velocity discrimination with increased contrast.

Conclusions

The finding that the velocity discrimination deficit in schizophrenia is independent of contrast modulation implicates the later, rather than the earlier, stages of motion processing, which is mediated in the extrastriate cortex.

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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