Deteriorated visual backward masking in the shine-through effect in adolescents with psychosis.
Visual backward masking is a reliable and widely used tool in schizophrenia research. Whereas many studies have shown masking deficits in adult patients, there are only very few studies with adolescents with psychosis-and with controversial results. Masking deficits of adolescents are of primary interest because they are not caused by long-term suffering from the disease and severe medication. We investigated 15 adolescents with psychosis and 19 age-matched controls in the shine-through backward masking paradigm for which strong performance deficits were shown previously in adult schizophrenic patients and their relatives. Adolescents with psychosis were strongly impaired in the shine-through effect compared to controls. This result adds further evidence that backward masking is an endophenotype of schizophrenia.
Holzer
Laurent
L
Centre Thérapeutique de Jour pour Adolescents, Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, 1012 Lausanne, Switzerland. Laurent.holzer@chuv.ch
Jaugey
Laure
L
Chinet
Leonie
L
Herzog
Michael H
MH
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology