The perception of real and illusory motion in schizophrenia

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 48; no. 10; pp. 3121 - 3127
• Main Authors: Crawford, T.J., Hamm, J.P., Kean, M., Schmechtig, A., Kumari, V., Anilkumar, A.P., Ettinger, U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analysis of Variance; Attention; Attention - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Case-Control Studies; Chi-Square Distribution; Decision Making - physiology; Humans; Illusion; Illusions - physiology; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Motion; Motion Perception - physiology; Neuropsychological Tests; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Pursuit, Smooth - physiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Schizophrenic Psychology; Smooth pursuit eye movement; Young Adult; Schizophrenia; Smooth pursuit eye movement; Motion; Illusion; Attention; Human; Stimulus movement; Perceptual illusion; Cognition; Pursuit eye movement; Psychosis; Vision; Perception; Visual attention
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.027

An illusion of rapid movement is normally perceived when an attentional cue (such as a peripheral flash) preceeds the onset of a line. The movement is perceived as receding away from the cue. This study investigated how this illusion was perceived by people with schizophrenia. Nineteen participants with schizophrenia and 26 healthy matched controls were presented with a series of real, illusory, no motion or combined real and illusory motion stimuli at various target speeds. Detection thresholds were measured to determine the reliability of motion perception. The participants with schizophrenia were not distinguished from the control group in the perception of real motion. However, the motion detection curves for the schizophrenia group revealed a reduction in the perceptual effect of illusory motion in comparison to controls. The findings revealed that people with schizophrenia may be less easily deceived by illusory motion in comparison to healthy participants.