Irregularity of visual motion perception and negative symptoms in schizophrenia
Yi Fan,
Yunhai Tao,
Jue Wang,
Yuan Gao,
Wei Wei,
Chanying Zheng,
Xiaotong Zhang,
Xue Mei Song,
Georg Northoff
Affiliations
Yi Fan
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Yunhai Tao
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Jue Wang
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Yuan Gao
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Wei Wei
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Chanying Zheng
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Xiaotong Zhang
MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science & Brain-Machine Integration, Zhejiang University
Xue Mei Song
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Georg Northoff
Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Abstract Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by perceptual, emotional, and behavioral abnormalities, with cognitive impairment being a prominent feature of the disorder. Recent studies demonstrate irregularity in SZ with increased variability on the neural level. Is there also irregularity on the psychophysics level like in visual perception? Here, we introduce a methodology to analyze the irregularity in a trial-by-trial way to compare the SZ and healthy control (HC) subjects. In addition, we use an unsupervised clustering algorithm K-means + + to identify SZ subgroups in the sample, followed by validation of the subgroups based on intraindividual visual perception variability and clinical symptomatology. The K-means + + method divided SZ patients into two subgroups by measuring durations across trials in the motion discrimination task, i.e., high, and low irregularity of SZ patients (HSZ, LSZ). We found that HSZ and LSZ subgroups are associated with more negative and positive symptoms respectively. Applying a mediation model in the HSZ subgroup, the enhanced irregularity mediates the relationship between visual perception and negative symptoms. Together, we demonstrate increased irregularity in visual perception of a HSZ subgroup, including its association with negative symptoms. This may serve as a promising marker for identifying and distinguishing SZ subgroups.