Early information processing deficit in schizophrenia. New findings using schizophrenic subgroups and manic control...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Schizophrenia is traditionally linked to higher cognitive deficits.
• Emerging theories suggest early information processing disturbances.
• These occur within milliseconds of stimulus reception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate early information processing in schizophrenia.
• To evaluate iconic storage and processing speed.
• To differentiate deficits in schizophrenic subgroups.

Main Methods:

• Utilized tachistoscopic presentation of stimuli.
• Assessed iconic storage capacity.
• Measured information processing speed from iconic to memory stores.

Main Results:

• Slowed information processing is a stable deficit in schizophrenia, independent of iconic storage.
• This deficit is strongly associated with a poor prognosis.
• Schizophrenic patients with a good prognosis showed a reversible processing speed deficit.

Conclusions:

• Early information processing deficits, particularly slowed processing speed, are characteristic of schizophrenia.
• Processing speed deficits correlate with prognosis.
• Findings support early information processing theories of schizophrenia.