Visual Perception and Its Impairment in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Much work in the cognitive neuroscience of schizophrenia has focused on attention, memory, and executive functioning. To date, less work has focused on perceptual processing. However, perceptual functions are frequently disrupted in schizophrenia, and thus this domain has been included in the CNTRICS (Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) project. In this article, we describe the basic science presentation and the breakout group discussion on the topic of perception from the first CNTRICS meeting, held in Bethesda, Maryland on February 26 and 27, 2007. The importance of perceptual dysfunction in schizophrenia, the nature of perceptual abnormalities in this disorder, and the critical need to develop perceptual tests appropriate for future clinical trials were discussed. Although deficits are also seen in auditory, olfactory, and somatosensory processing in schizophrenia, the first CNTRICS meeting focused on visual processing deficits. Key concepts of gain control and integration in visual perception were introduced. Definitions and examples of these concepts are provided in this article. Use of visual gain control and integration fit a number of the criteria suggested by the CNTRICS committee, provide fundamental constructs for understanding the visual system in schizophrenia, and are inclusive of both lower-level and higher-level perceptual deficits.

MEG-measured visually induced gamma-band oscillations in chronic schizophrenia: Evidence for impaired generation of rhythmic activity in ventral stream regions

“…The current data are consistent with empirical findings and formulations in the literature that have highlighted aberrant neural responses in visual cortices that could underlie deficits in sensory registration and/or propagation of feedforward-mediated information in ScZ (Tan et al, 2013;Javitt, 2015, Butler et al, 2008. In the visual cortex of ScZ patients, reduced synaptic contacts (Selemon et al, 1995) as well as reduced markers of interneuron activity have been observed (Hashimoto et al, 2008), which together could provide possible mechanisms for the observed reductions in high-frequency oscillations as these are critically dependent upon rhythmic inhibition of large number of pyramidal cells (Whittington and Traub, 2003).…”

“…Moreover, as gamma-band activity was also unimpaired in early visual cortex, the most parsimonious interpretation of the MEG data would favour a deficit in ventral stream generators. This conclusion is consistent with recent data that highlight that reductions in P1 amplitude may mostly involve impaired contributions from extra-striate cortex while initial afferent activity (through magnocellular pathways) to early visual cortex is intact in ScZ patients (Lalor et al, 2012; for different findings, however, see e.g., Butler et al, 2008;Javitt et al, 2009Javitt et al, , 2015.…”

“…This is supported through data from anatomy (Selemon et al, 1995), physiology (Rivolta et al, 2014;Sun et al, 2013;Grützner et al, 2013;Krishnan et al, 2005;Butler et al, 2007) and psychophysics (Butler et al, 2008;Uhlhaas and Silverstein, 2005;Uhlhaas and Mishara, 2007), which has highlighted that the earliest stages of auditory and visual processing might be compromised. As a result, dysfunctions in "higher" cortical regions that support more complex cognitive processes involved in executive functions and social cognition could be essentially due to deficits in bottom-up driven sensory activity (Javitt, 2009).…”

Shift toward prior knowledge confers a perceptual advantage in early psychosis and psychosis-prone healthy individuals

“…This finding is not directly relevant to the main question addressed in this study but it is interesting because it contrasts with previous studies in patients with established schizophrenia who show reduced ability to spontaneously disambiguate two-tone images of faces without prior knowledge (46,47). This previous effect is most likely related to well-established schizophrenic deficits in early and midlevel vision that affect perceptual organization, context processing and integration (37,38,(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53) rather than to top-down influences from high-level visual cognition as in the current study. We did not directly probe early and midlevel visual function in our participants, but it seems most likely that the absence of impairments in spontaneous disambiguation of two-tone images in the clinical group might be due to the specific nature of our stimulus material, which was extensively piloted to be difficult to disambiguate without prior knowledge (for details, see SI Materials and Methods).…”

Severe Cross-Modal Object Recognition Deficits in Rats Treated Sub-Chronically with NMDA Receptor Antagonists are Reversed by Systemic Nicotine: Implications for Abnormal Multisensory Integration in Schizophrenia

“…Indeed, the importance of multisensory integration was recognized by the first CNTRICS (Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) breakout session, which suggested the inclusion of 'cross-modal integration' in a preclinical battery for cognition in schizophrenia research (Butler et al, 2008). We have recently introduced a cross-modal (tactile-to-visual) variant of the rodent spontaneous object recognition (SOR) task that enables assessment of multisensory integration (Winters and Reid, 2010).…”