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Behavioural Vigilance in Schizophrenia

Evidence for Hyperattentional Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Corinne M. Mar ,
David A. Smith  and
Martin Sarter
Corinne M. Mar
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Ohio State University
David A. Smith*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Ohio State University
Martin Sarter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program Ohio State University
*
D. A. Smith, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 142 Townshend Hall, Columbus, OH 43210–1222, USA. Fax: 614–292–4537
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Abstract

Background

Despite 30 years of research, some surprisingly fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of schizophrenic input dysfunctions.

Method

In a provisional test of a ‘hyperattention’ hypothesis, schizophrenic patients and control subjects performed a behavioural test that was adapted from a paradigm originally developed for characterising vigilance or sustained attention in animals. On this computerised operant testing procedure, subjects discriminated between signals of various salience and non-signal presentations. Hits and correct rejections resulted in monetary rewards while misses and false alarms entailed monetary costs.

Results

Data from in-patients with schizophrenia and age, education and gender-matched controls support hypotheses not only about hyperattentional dysfunctions in schizophrenia with respect to overall signal detectability but also in terms of resistance to the vigilance decrement that normally occurs over trials.

Conclusions

The theoretical importance of impairments of this sort are discussed with respect to the cognitive and perceptual consequences of hypervigilance and ‘input dysfunction’.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 6 , December 1996 , pp. 781 - 789
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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