Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2026
A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
Published on: July 16, 2015
Attentional capture in schizophrenia: failure to resist interference from motion signals
M G Ducato1, G A Michael, P Thomas
1Lab. Neurosciences fonctionnelles & pathologies, CNRS Université Lille, Lille, France.
Introduction:
Patients with schizophrenia show high susceptibility to distraction but the neural mechanisms underlying sensitivity to distraction are not clearly established. We designed a paradigm to assess whether sensitivity to distraction and dorsal stream dysfunction are related in schizophrenia.
Method:
60 patients, 37 schizotypals, and 58 healthy controls were asked to locate a target square appearing above or below fixation and to ignore a distractor that either moved abruptly (in Experiments 1 and 3) or changed in colour (in Experiment 2). The distractor condition was compared to a baseline condition with no distractor. Resistance to interference was assessed by manipulating the probability of the distractor changing more frequently (50%, 75%, 100%) on one side of fixation.
Results:
Patients, schizotypals, and controls showed attentional capture with longer response times when the distractor changed as compared to the baseline condition. In contrast to controls, the magnitude of interference from distractors remained stable for patients and schizotypals across all probability conditions and this was confined to attentional capture by motion, not by colour.
Conclusion:
We found a similar pattern of results in patients and in schizotypals. Our attentional capture paradigm could help to identify early cognitive impairments in populations at risk to develop schizophrenia. The data are interpreted in terms of dysfunction of frontal control on dorsal stream functions in schizophrenia.
