title: The clinical translation of a measure of gain control: the contrast-contrast effect task.
abstract: The goal of the current project was to further develop a measure of gain control--the Contrast-Contrast Effect (CCE)--for use in clinical studies of schizophrenia. The CCE is based on an illusion in which presenting a medium contrast patch surrounded by a high-contrast patch induces individuals to perceive that center patch as having lower contrast than when the patch is presented in isolation. Thus, in the CCE, impaired gain control should lead to more accurate perceptions of the center patch. We tested 132 individuals with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 130 demographically similar healthy controls. The results indicated that the CCE effect can be obtained with standard equipment, simplified scoring, and a short interstimulus interval (100 ms), revealing a robust suppression of perceived contrast of the center patch when surrounded by a high-contrast annulus. Furthermore, we found a significant reduction in the effect of the high-contrast surround among individuals with schizophrenia, though the effect size was smaller than original reported by Dakin. However, when we eliminated subjects who performed poorly on "catch" trials that controlled for off-task performance, the reduced surround effect among patients was no longer significant in the main analyses. Importantly, this suggests that at least part of the reduced surround effect (if not all) in schizophrenia could be attributable to impaired attentional mechanisms that contribute to off-task performance. Additional analyses suggested that the length of the task could be shortened without losing power to detect surround effects in healthy individuals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University, Box 1125, One Brookings Drive, St Louis, MO 63130, USA. dbarch@artsci.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Deanna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barch
authors.forename: Cameron S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Steve C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Dakin
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Luck
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ragland
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Silverstein
authors.forename: Milton E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Strauss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009903:Optical Illusions; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
references.citation: J Neurosci. 1992 Jul;12(7):2672-84
references.pmid: 1351937
references.citation: Psychiatry Res. 2006 Dec 7;145(2-3):105-17
references.pmid: 17081620
references.citation: Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Jul 1;64(1):40-7
references.pmid: 18549875
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2003 Jul 30;23(17):6884-93
references.pmid: 12890783
references.citation: Clin Neurophysiol. 2005 Sep;116(9):2204-15
references.pmid: 16055375
references.citation: Annu Rev Neurosci. 1993;16:207-22
references.pmid: 8460891
references.citation: Schizophr Bull. 2008 Jul;34(4):629-44
references.pmid: 18487226
references.citation: J Neurosci. 1995 Feb;15(2):1605-15
references.pmid: 7869121
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Mar 10;30(10):3777-81
references.pmid: 20220012
references.citation: Neurosci Lett. 2004 Mar 4;357(2):131-4
references.pmid: 15036592
references.citation: J Abnorm Psychol. 1998 Feb;107(1):49-62
references.pmid: 9505038
references.citation: Vision Res. 2006 Nov;46(24):4163-80
references.pmid: 16997347
references.citation: Nature. 1982 Jul 15;298(5871):266-8
references.pmid: 7088176
references.citation: J Physiol. 1978 Dec;285:275-98
references.pmid: 745079
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Dec 26;103(52):19878-83
references.pmid: 17170134
references.citation: Vision Res. 1979;19(4):431-4
references.pmid: 473613
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 1991 Oct;148(10):1301-8
references.pmid: 1654746
references.citation: Vis Neurosci. 1991 Mar;6(3):239-55
references.pmid: 2054326
references.citation: J Abnorm Psychol. 1996 Aug;105(3):336-48
references.pmid: 8772004
references.citation: Vis Neurosci. 2000 May-Jun;17(3):421-36
references.pmid: 10910109
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 2008 Dec;165(12):1585-93
references.pmid: 18923067
references.citation: Schizophr Bull. 2008 Jul;34(4):645-55
references.pmid: 18468987
references.citation: Schizophr Bull. 2012 Jan;38(1):104-13
references.pmid: 22199092
references.citation: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Nov;63(11):1180-8
references.pmid: 17088498
references.citation: Curr Biol. 1996 Feb 1;6(2):141-3
references.pmid: 8673459
references.citation: J Abnorm Psychol. 1997 May;106(2):315-24
references.pmid: 9131851
references.citation: Schizophr Res. 2005 Jul 1;76(1):55-65
references.pmid: 15927798
references.citation: Schizophr Bull. 2012 Jan;38(1):144-52
references.pmid: 22101961
references.citation: J Cogn Neurosci. 2001 Jul 1;13(5):547-55
references.pmid: 11506656
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Dec;86(23):9631-5
references.pmid: 2594791
references.citation: Vis Neurosci. 1989;2(1):41-55
references.pmid: 2487637
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2005 Oct 25;15(20):R822-4
references.pmid: 16243017
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 1985 Sep;54(3):651-67
references.pmid: 4045542
references.citation: J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 1994 Jun;11(6):1710-9
references.pmid: 8046537
references.citation: Vis Neurosci. 1992 Aug;9(2):181-97
references.pmid: 1504027