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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Increased psychophysiological parameters of attention in non-psychotic individuals with auditory verbal
Remko van Lutterveld1, Bob Oranje, Chantal Kemner
1Neuroscience Division, University Medical Center Utrecht and Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, Utrecht, The Netherlands. R.vanlutterveld@umcutrecht.nl
Objective:
Schizophrenia is associated with aberrant event-related potentials (ERPs) such as reductions in P300, processing negativity and mismatch negativity amplitudes. These deficits may be related to the propensity of schizophrenia patients to experience auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). However, AVH are part of extensive and variable symptomatology in schizophrenia. For this reason non-psychotic individuals with AVH as an isolated symptom provide an excellent opportunity to investigate this relationship.
Methods:
P300 waveforms, processing negativity and mismatch negativity were examined with an auditory oddball paradigm in 18 non-psychotic individuals with AVH and 18 controls.
Results:
P300 amplitude was increased in the AVH group as compared to controls, reflecting superior effortful attention. A trend in the same direction was found for processing negativity. No significant differences were found for mismatch negativity.
Conclusion:
Contrary to our expectations, non-psychotic individuals with AVH show increased rather than decreased psychophysiological measures of effortful attention compared to healthy controls, refuting a pivotal role of decreased effortful attention in the pathophysiology of AVH.
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