Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits
Contour integration is impaired in schizophrenia patients, even at the first episode, but little is known about visual integration abilities prior to illness onset. To examine this issue, we compared undergraduate students high and low in schizotypal personality traits, reflecting putative liability...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00518/full |
| _version_ | 1818217576145092608 |
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| author | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock |
| author_facet | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock |
| author_sort | Kirsten R. Panton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Contour integration is impaired in schizophrenia patients, even at the first episode, but little is known about visual integration abilities prior to illness onset. To examine this issue, we compared undergraduate students high and low in schizotypal personality traits, reflecting putative liability to psychosis, on two psychophysical tasks assessing local and global stages of the integration process. The Radial Frequency Jittered Orientation Tolerance (RFJOT) task measures tolerance to orientation noise at the local signal level, when judging global stimulus orientation, whilst the Radial Frequency Integration Task (RFIT) measures the ability to globally integrate the local signals that have been extracted during shape discrimination. Positive schizotypy was assessed with the Perceptual Aberration (PAb) scale from the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief. On the RFJOT task, the High PAb group (n = 55) tolerated statistically significantly less noise (d = −0.494) and had a lower proportion of correct responses (d = −0.461) than the Low PAb group (n = 77). For the RFIT there was no statistically significant difference in integration abilities between the High and Low PAb groups. High and Low PAb groups also differed on other positive and disorganized (but not negative) schizotypy traits, hence poorer performance on the RFJOT may not be solely related to unusual perceptual experiences. These findings suggest that difficulties with local noise tolerance but not global integration occur in healthy young adults with high levels of schizotypal personality traits, and may be worth investigating as a marker of risk for schizophrenia. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T07:10:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7b008226e8124937aa9701d1b3202140 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T07:10:03Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-7b008226e8124937aa9701d1b32021402022-12-22T00:33:39ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402018-10-01910.3389/fpsyt.2018.00518414058Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality TraitsKirsten R. Panton0Johanna C. Badcock1J. Edwin Dickinson2David R. Badcock3Human Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaDivision of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaHuman Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaHuman Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaContour integration is impaired in schizophrenia patients, even at the first episode, but little is known about visual integration abilities prior to illness onset. To examine this issue, we compared undergraduate students high and low in schizotypal personality traits, reflecting putative liability to psychosis, on two psychophysical tasks assessing local and global stages of the integration process. The Radial Frequency Jittered Orientation Tolerance (RFJOT) task measures tolerance to orientation noise at the local signal level, when judging global stimulus orientation, whilst the Radial Frequency Integration Task (RFIT) measures the ability to globally integrate the local signals that have been extracted during shape discrimination. Positive schizotypy was assessed with the Perceptual Aberration (PAb) scale from the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief. On the RFJOT task, the High PAb group (n = 55) tolerated statistically significantly less noise (d = −0.494) and had a lower proportion of correct responses (d = −0.461) than the Low PAb group (n = 77). For the RFIT there was no statistically significant difference in integration abilities between the High and Low PAb groups. High and Low PAb groups also differed on other positive and disorganized (but not negative) schizotypy traits, hence poorer performance on the RFJOT may not be solely related to unusual perceptual experiences. These findings suggest that difficulties with local noise tolerance but not global integration occur in healthy young adults with high levels of schizotypal personality traits, and may be worth investigating as a marker of risk for schizophrenia.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00518/fullschizotypyperceptual organizationvisual integrationschizophreniaglobal procesisnglocal processing |
| spellingShingle | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits Frontiers in Psychiatry schizotypy perceptual organization visual integration schizophrenia global procesisng local processing |
| title | Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_full | Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_fullStr | Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_short | Poorer Integration of Local Orientation Information Occurs in Students With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_sort | poorer integration of local orientation information occurs in students with high schizotypal personality traits |
| topic | schizotypy perceptual organization visual integration schizophrenia global procesisng local processing |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00518/full |
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