The neurophysiology of biological motion perception in schizophrenia.

Introduction: The ability to recognize human biological motion is a fundamental aspect of social cognition that is impaired in people with schizophrenia. However, little is known about the neural substrates of impaired biological motion perception in schizophrenia. In the current study, we assessed event-related potentials (ERPs) to human and nonhuman movement in schizophrenia.

Social cognition and functional outcome in schizophrenia: The moderating role of cardiac vagal tone.

Individuals with schizophrenia face significant challenges in daily functioning, and although social cognition predicts how well patients respond to these challenges, associated physiological mechanisms remain unspecified. The present study draws from polyvagal theory and tested the hypothesis that respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an established indicator of the capacity to self-regulate and adapt to environmental demands, combines with social cognition to predict functional outcome. Using data from 41 schizophrenia patients and 36 healthy comparison subjects, we replicated group differences in RSA and social cognition and also demonstrated that RSA and social cognition interact to predict how effectively patients manage work and independent living activities.

Object substitution masking in schizophrenia: an event-related potential analysis.

Schizophrenia patients exhibit deficits on visual processing tasks, including visual backward masking, and these impairments are related to deficits in higher-level processes. In the current study we used electroencephalography techniques to examine successive stages and pathways of visual processing in a specialized masking paradigm, four-dot masking, which involves masking by object substitution. Seventy-six schizophrenia patients and 66 healthy controls had event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded during four-dot masking.

An electrophysiological investigation of attentional blink in schizophrenia: separating perceptual and attentional processes.

When two visual targets are presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm, the ability to identify the second target is reduced when it is presented 200-500ms after the initial target. This phenomenon is referred to as the "attentional blink (AB)." Previous behavioral studies have reported aberrant AB in schizophrenia.

Cross-diagnostic comparison of duration mismatch negativity and P3a in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Objectives: Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia share common pathophysiological processes and may have similar perceptual abnormalities. Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a - event-related potentials associated with auditory preattentional processing - have been extensively studied in schizophrenia, but rarely in bipolar disorder. Furthermore, MMN and P3a have not been examined between diagnostic subgroups of patients with bipolar disorder.

Visual masking in schizophrenia: overview and theoretical implications.

Visual masking provides several key advantages for exploring the earliest stages of visual processing in schizophrenia: it allows for control over timing at the millisecond level, there are several well-supported theories of the underlying neurobiology of visual masking, and it is amenable to examination by electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this paper, we provide an overview of the visual masking impairment schizophrenia, including the relevant theoretical mechanisms for masking impairment. We will discuss its relationship to clinical symptoms, antipsychotic medications, diagnostic specificity, and presence in at-risk populations.

The attentional blink in schizophrenia: isolating the perception/attention interface.

Previous work has demonstrated that several aspects of visual processing are impaired in schizophrenia, including early perceptual processes and later higher-order processes. However, it remains unclear whether the stage of processing where early perception and later higher-order processes interact is impaired in schizophrenia. The current research examined this interface in schizophrenia using the attentional blink (AB) paradigm.

Integrity of emotional and motivational states during the prodromal, first-episode, and chronic phases of schizophrenia.

Emotional and motivational dysfunction is fundamental to schizophrenia, and yet, the nature and scope of associated deficits are not well understood. This study assessed the integrity of emotional responding from the perspective of its underlying motivational systems during different phases of schizophrenia. Evaluative, somatic, and autonomic responses were measured during viewing of pictures categorized by emotional content, including threat, mutilation, contamination, illness, pollution, mild erotica, families, food, and nature.