Remediation of perceptual organisation in schizophrenia

Introduction Impaired perceptual organisation in schizophrenia has been repeatedly described in clinical and research literatures. It has also been associated with problems in more complex aspects of visual function, including visuospatial and visual cognitive test performance. Two therapeutic interventions were developed here that target perceptual organisation: (1) Computer-based training, which emphasized stimulus-driven processing (bottom-up approach), and (2) Instrumental Enrichment therapy, which is a therapist-guided interactive learning method (top-down approach). Methods Twenty-eight patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder participated in a 12-week programme. For both forms of interventions, task difficulty increased progressively, based upon successful performance. The third group of patients, which served as controls, received a similar therapeutic intervention that did not include a perceptual organisation component. Before and after intervention, participants received tests of perceptual organisation, as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests. Results Results indicate that both forms of intervention improved perceptual organisation ability relative to the control condition. In addition, the improvement was found for select neuropsychological tests, although the pattern of improvement did not favour capacities more closely associated with visual organisational or visuospatial function. Conclusions Together, results demonstrate the effectiveness of new remediation protocols that target mid-level visual processing, which generalized to select visual cognitive functions.