Contextual processing in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Introduction Patients with schizophrenia have deficits in contextual vision. However, results are often very mixed. In some paradigms, patients do not take the context into account and therefore act more veridically than healthy controls. In other paradigms, context impairs performance in patients more strongly than in healthy controls. These mixed results may be explained by differences in paradigms, as well as by small or biased samples, given the large heterogeneity of the disease. Objectives To understand if there are general contextual deficits in schizophrenia. Methods 17 schizophrenia patients and 16 age-matched controls were tested with a combined crowding and uncrowding paradigm. Results Schizophrenia patients show qualitatively similar crowding performance as controls. In the uncrowding condition, however, patientsimproved less than controls. We suggest that performance in the various paradigms depends on idiosyncratic aspects of the paradigm in addition to the heterogeneity of the disease. Conclusions There are no general impaired mechanisms in schizophrenia. Deficits depend strongly on idiosyncrasies of the specific stimuli. Disclosure of Interest None Declared