title: Contour integration impairment in schizophrenia and first episode psychosis: state or trait?
abstract: Contour integration is a fundamental visual process that recovers object structure by representing spatially separated edge elements as a continuous contour or shape boundary. Clinically stable persons with schizophrenia have repeatedly been shown to be impaired at contour integration but it is unclear whether this process varies with clinical state or whether it arises as early as the first episode of psychosis. To consider these issues, we administered a contour integration test to persons with chronic schizophrenia and to those with a first episode of psychosis. The test was administered twice-once at admission to short term psychiatric hospitalization and once again at discharge. A well-matched healthy control group was also tested across the same time points. We found that contour integration performance improved to the same degree in all groups over time, indicating that there were no recovery effects over and above normal practice effects. Moreover, the schizophrenia group demonstrated poorer contour integration than the control group and the first episode group exhibited intermediate performance that could not be distinguished from the other groups. These results suggest that contour integration ability does not vary as a function of short-term changes in clinical state, and that it may become further impaired with an increased number of psychotic episodes.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA; Albright College, 13th and Bern Streets, Reading, PA 19612-52345, USA. Electronic address: kfeigenson@alb.edu.
authors.forename: Keith A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Feigenson
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA; Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, 671 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855, USA; Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Electronic address: brian.keane@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Brian P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Keane
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Electronic address: rochemw@rwjms.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Roché
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA; Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, 671 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855, USA. Electronic address: silvers1@ubhc.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Silverstein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012074:Remission Induction; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Biomarker; Cognition; Contour integration; Perception; Schizophrenia; Vision