title: Impaired performance on the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP) could be an endophenotype of schizophrenia.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients show reduced sensitivity performance, higher intra-individual variability (IIV) in reaction time (RT), and a steeper decline in sensitivity over time in a sustained attention task. Healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients (n=23) and healthy control subjects (n=46) without a family history of schizophrenia performed a demanding version of the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP). RTs, hits, false alarms, and the sensitivity index A' were assessed. The relatives were significantly less sensitive, tended to have higher IIV in RT, but sustained the impaired level of sensitivity over time. Impaired performance on the RVIP is a possible endophenotype for schizophrenia. Higher IIV in RT, apparently caused by impaired context representations, might result in fluctuations in control and lead to more frequent attentional lapses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Caroline Claudia
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hilti
authors.forename: Leonie Maria
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Hilti
authors.forename: Doerthe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Heinemann
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seifritz
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cattapan-Ludewig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*