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Visual illusions in young people reporting psychotic-like experiences
Irene Sperandio1, Philippe A Chouinard2, Emily Paice3
1Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, 38068, Italy.
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
|February 10, 2023
Summary
Increased stress, not psychotic-like experiences, explains heightened susceptibility to visual illusions in young adults. This suggests a perceptual style prioritizing expectations over sensory data, impacting real-world perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Anomalous perceptual experiences in psychosis are linked to disrupted bottom-up and top-down processing.
- Visual illusions offer a method to study this perceptual disruption.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual illusion susceptibility in young individuals with psychotic-like experiences.
- To explore the relationship between illusion susceptibility and appraisals of psychotic-like experiences, depression, anxiety, and stress.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 25 young people with psychotic-like experiences and 53 healthy controls completed a visual illusion susceptibility task.
- Participants underwent assessments for depression, anxiety, stress, and psychotic-like experiences.
Main Results:
- The clinical group showed generally higher illusion susceptibility, but this difference vanished when controlling for mental health factors.
- Stress levels were the primary predictor of illusion susceptibility in the clinical group.
- Anomalous experiences, depression, and anxiety did not correlate with overall illusion strength.
Conclusions:
- Elevated stress levels account for increased visual illusion vulnerability in individuals with psychotic-like experiences.
- This suggests a perceptual bias towards prior expectations over sensory evidence, potentially altering world perception.
Keywords:
Anomalous perceptual experiencesIllusion susceptibilityNegative emotionsPsychotic-like experiencesMore Related Videos
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