Visual Context Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia: Effects of Deafness and Disorganization
Visual Context Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia: Effects of Deafness and Disorganization
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DOI：
10.1093/schbul/sbr055
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发表时间：
2011-07-01
影响因子：
6.6
通讯作者：
Silverstein, Steven M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Horton, Heather K.;Silverstein, Steven M.
视觉错觉允许对知觉功能进行强有力的测试。感知障碍可以在某些任务上产生上级的任务表现（即，更真实的感知），从而避免广义的缺陷混淆，同时利用在很大程度上不受意识控制的机制。使用任务的基础上的艾宾浩斯错觉，感知的中心目标对象的大小是由周围的诱导剂的大小的影响的感知现象，我们测试的假设相关的视觉整合聋人（n = 31）和听力（n = 34）精神分裂症患者。在过去的研究中，精神健康的样本显示出相对于精神分裂症样本的视觉整合增加，因此不太能够正确判断目标大小。耳聋，特别是使用手语，会导致对周边视觉线索的敏感度提高，对视觉环境的敏感度增加。因此，相对于听力正常的受试者，预期失聪受试者会表现出更高的上下文敏感性（即，更正常的错觉效应，如正确判断中央目标大小的能力下降所证明的）。证实了这一假设，聋人签名者比非签名听力患者对错觉更敏感。此外，较早的手语习得年龄，较高的语言能力水平，以及较短的患病时间显着相关的上下文敏感性增加。正如预测的那样，混乱与所有受试者的上下文敏感性降低有关。这些数据的主要含义是精神分裂症的知觉组织障碍是可塑性的，它与协调认知活动的更广泛失败有关。
Visual illusions allow for strong tests of perceptual functioning. Perceptual impairments can produce superior task performance on certain tasks (ie, more veridical perception), thereby avoiding generalized deficit confounds while tapping mechanisms that are largely outside of conscious control. Using a task based on the Ebbinghaus illusion, a perceptual phenomenon where the perceived size of a central target object is affected by the size of surrounding inducers, we tested hypotheses related to visual integration in deaf (n = 31) and hearing (n = 34) patients with schizophrenia. In past studies, psychiatrically healthy samples displayed increased visual integration relative to schizophrenia samples and thus were less able to correctly judge target sizes. Deafness, and especially the use of sign language, leads to heightened sensitivity to peripheral visual cues and increased sensitivity to visual context. Therefore, relative to hearing subjects, deaf subjects were expected to display increased context sensitivity (ie, a more normal illusion effect as evidenced by a decreased ability to correctly judge central target sizes). Confirming the hypothesis, deaf signers were significantly more sensitive to the illusion than nonsigning hearing patients. Moreover, an earlier age of sign language acquisition, higher levels of linguistic ability, and shorter illness duration were significantly related to increased context sensitivity. As predicted, disorganization was associated with reduced context sensitivity for all subjects. The primary implications of these data are that perceptual organization impairment in schizophrenia is plastic and that it is related to a broader failure in coordinating cognitive activity.