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Updated: May 6, 2026

Measurement of Fronto-limbic Activity Using an Emotional Oddball Task in Children with Familial High Risk for Schizophrenia
Published on: December 2, 2015
Schizophrenia and emotional rubbernecking
1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, Schermerhorn Hall, 324C, New York, NY, 10027, USA, tse4@columbia.edu.
People with schizophrenia (PSZ) showed better working memory performance than healthy controls when emotionally salient information competed with cognitive goals. Their emotional processing deficits may offer an advantage in such situations.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Emotionally salient information typically captures attention.
- This can be maladaptive, interfering with cognitive goals.
- People with schizophrenia (PSZ) often have attentional deficits and altered emotional processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of emotionally salient information on working memory performance in PSZ compared to healthy controls (HC).
Main Methods:
- A working memory task was administered to PSZ and HC groups.
- Performance was assessed under conditions with and without emotionally salient stimuli.
Main Results:
- PSZ exhibited fewer false alarms than HC, indicating better overall performance on the working memory task.
- Hit rates were comparable between PSZ and HC groups.
- Emotional processing deficits in PSZ appeared to confer an advantage in this task.
Conclusions:
- Altered emotional processing in PSZ may enhance cognitive goal maintenance when faced with distracting emotional stimuli.
- This finding challenges typical assumptions about attentional deficits in schizophrenia.
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