Audio-visual integration in schizophrenia.
Integration of information provided simultaneously by audition and vision was studied in a group of 18 schizophrenic patients. They were compared to a control group, consisting of 12 normal adults of comparable age and education. By administering two tasks, each focusing on one aspect of audio-visual integration, the study could differentiate between a spatial integration deficit and a speech-based integration deficit. Experiment 1 studied audio-visual interactions in the spatial localisation of sounds. Experiment 2 investigated integration of auditory and visual speech. The schizophrenic group performed as the control group on the sound localisation task, but in the audio-visual speech task, there was an impairment in lipreading as well as a smaller impact of lipreading on auditory speech information. Combined with findings about functional and neuro-anatomical specificity of intersensory integration, the data suggest that there is an integration deficit in the schizophrenic group that is related to the processing of phonetic information.
de Gelder
Beatrice
B
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands. b.degelder@kub.nl
Vroomen
Jean
J
Annen
Leonie
L
Masthof
Erik
E
Hodiamont
Paul
P
D000328:Adult; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013028:Space Perception; D013067:Speech Perception; D014796:Visual Perception