Visual masking by object substitution in schizophrenia

Background Schizophrenia patients demonstrate impairment on visual backward masking, a measure of early visual processing. Most visual masking paradigms involve two distinct processes, an early fast-acting component associated with object formation and a later component that acts through object substitution. So far, masking paradigms used in schizophrenia research have been unable to separate these two processes. Method We administered three visual processing paradigms (location masking with forward and backward masking, four-dot backward masking and a cuing task) to 136 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 79 healthy controls. A psychophysical procedure was used to match subjects on identification of an unmasked target prior to location masking. Location masking interrupts object formation, four-dot masking task works through masking by object substitution and the cuing task measures iconic decay. Results Patients showed impairment on location masking after being matched for input threshold, similar to previous reports. After correcting for age, patients showed lower performance on four-dot masking than controls, but the groups did not differ on the cuing task. Conclusions Patients with schizophrenia showed lower performance when masking was specific to object substitution. The difference in object substitution masking was not due to a difference in rate of iconic decay, which was comparable in the two groups. These results suggest that, despite normal iconic decay rates, individuals with schizophrenia show impairment in a paradigm of masking by object substitution that did not also involve disruption of object formation.

[1]  D. Javitt,et al.  Magnocellular and parvocellular contributions to backward masking dysfunction in schizophrenia , 2003, Schizophrenia Research.

[2]  B. Rund.  Backward-masking performance in chronic and nonchronic schizophrenics, affectively disturbed patients, and normal control subjects. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[3]  James E. Hoffman,et al.  Object Substitution Masking Interferes With Semantic Processing , 2006, Psychological science.

[4]  J. Schuck,et al.  Backward masking, information processing, and schizophrenia. , 1989, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[5]  Tony Ro,et al.  Feedback Contributions to Visual Awareness in Human Occipital Cortex , 2003, Current Biology.

[6]  K H Nuechterlein,et al.  Backward masking in unmedicated schizophrenic patients in psychotic remission: possible reflection of aberrant cortical oscillation. , 1999, The American journal of psychiatry.

[7]  Patrick Cavanagh,et al.  Recovery of a crowded object by masking the flankers: determining the locus of feature integration. , 2009, Journal of vision.

[8]  D. Saccuzzo,et al.  Information-processing abnormalities: trait- and state-dependent components. , 1986, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[9]  H. Kornhuber,et al.  Preattentive information processing as measured by backward masking and texton detection tasks in adolescents at high genetic risk for schizophrenia , 1996, Schizophrenia Research.

[10]  Arnulf Remole,et al.  VISUAL MASKING: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH , 1985 .

[11]  D. Saccuzzo,et al.  Early information processing deficit in schizophrenia. New findings using schizophrenic subgroups and manic control subjects. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[12]  Anne Treisman,et al.  Implicit Perception and Level of Processing in Object-Substitution Masking , 2009, Psychological science.

[13]  John J. Foxe,et al.  Sensory Contributions to Impaired Prosodic Processing in Schizophrenia , 2005, Biological Psychiatry.

[14]  D. Braff,et al.  Transient versus sustained visual channels in the visual backward masking deficits of schizophrenia patients , 1998, Biological Psychiatry.

[15]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  Competition for consciousness among visual events: the psychophysics of reentrant visual processes. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[16]  B. Breitmeyer,et al.  Forward and backward visual masking in schizophrenia: influence of age , 2003, Psychological Medicine.

[17]  D. Javitt.  When doors of perception close: bottom-up models of disrupted cognition in schizophrenia. , 2009, Annual review of clinical psychology.

[18]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Backward masking in schizophrenia and mania. II. Specifying the visual channels. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[19]  R. Liberman,et al.  Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) Expanded Version (4.0): Scales, Anchor Points, and Administration Manual , 1993 .

[20]  Troy A. W. Visser,et al.  Delayed reentrant processing impairs visual awareness: An object substitution masking study , 2010 .

[21]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Forward and Backward Visual Masking in Unaffected Siblings of Schizophrenic Patients , 2006, Biological Psychiatry.

[22]  M. First,et al.  Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis II personality disorders : SCID-II , 1997 .

[23]  Junghee Lee,et al.  Pathways between early visual processing and functional outcome in schizophrenia , 2010, Psychological Medicine.

[24]  Thomas A Carlson,et al.  No Representation Without Awareness in the Lateral Occipital Cortex , 2007, Psychological science.

[25]  James M. Brown,et al.  The magnocellular visual system and schizophrenia: what can the color red tell us? , 2003, Schizophrenia Research.

[26]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Functional neuroanatomy of visual masking deficits in schizophrenia. , 2009, Archives of general psychiatry.

[27]  N. Andreasen.  The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS): Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations , 1989, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[28]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Visual masking as a probe for abnormal gamma range activity in schizophrenia , 2003, Biological Psychiatry.

[29]  John J. Foxe,et al.  Sensory deficits and distributed hierarchical dysfunction in schizophrenia. , 2010, The American journal of psychiatry.

[30]  R. Weller.  Iatrogenic transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease , 1989, Psychological Medicine.

[31]  D. Saccuzzo,et al.  Information processing deficits in remitted schizophrenics. , 1979, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[32]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Training and quality assurance with the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I/P) , 1998, Psychiatry Research.

[33]  J. Enns,et al.  What’s new in visual masking? , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[34]  Robert Paul Liberman,et al.  Training and quality assurance with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: "The drift busters." , 1993 .

[35]  K H Nuechterlein,et al.  Backward masking performance in unaffected siblings of schizophrenic patients. Evidence for a vulnerability indicator. , 1997, Archives of general psychiatry.

[36]  S. Kéri,et al.  Different trait markers for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a neurocognitive approach , 2001, Psychological Medicine.

[37]  B. Breitmeyer,et al.  Recent models and findings in visual backward masking: A comparison, review, and update , 2000, Perception & psychophysics.

[38]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Development of a computerized assessment for visual masking , 2002, International journal of methods in psychiatric research.

[39]  K. Grill-Spector,et al.  The dynamics of object-selective activation correlate with recognition performance in humans , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[40]  R. Knight,et al.  Iconic imagery in overinclusive and nonoverinclusive schizophrenics. , 1977, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[41]  Benjamin M. Robinson,et al.  Iconic decay in schizophrenia. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[42]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Backward masking in schizophrenia and mania. I. Specifying a mechanism. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[43]  D. Saccuzzo,et al.  Backward masking as a measure of slow processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. , 1981, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[44]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Social perception as a mediator of the influence of early visual processing on functional status in schizophrenia. , 2006, The American journal of psychiatry.

[45]  Stephen A. Engel,et al.  Regional Brain Activity Associated with Visual Backward Masking , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[46]  J. Enns.  Object substitution and its relation to other forms of visual masking , 2004, Vision Research.

[47]  Michael F. Green,et al.  Event-related gamma activity in schizophrenia patients during a visual backward-masking task. , 2005, The American journal of psychiatry.

[48]  M. Bar,et al.  Cortical Mechanisms Specific to Explicit Visual Object Recognition , 2001, Neuron.