Evidence of reduced selective attention in schizotypal personality disorder

摘要

It has been shown that high-schizotypy and schizophrenic participants demonstrate increased task-switching costs, although high-schizotypy participants present this pattern only in incongruent trials (Cimino & Haywood, 20086. Cimino , M. and Haywood , M. 2008 . Inhibition and facilitation in schizotypy . Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology , 30 ( 2 ) : 187 - 198 . [Taylor & Francis Online], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]View all references). In this study, we aim to explore whether this results from difficulties in selective attention or task control. A total of 18 participants with high levels of psychometrically defined schizotypy and 16 participants with low scores were tested in two different versions of a task-switching paradigm. Participants were asked to switch between attending to the color or the shape of bidimensional objects following a previous cue. Two versions of the task were investigated, one involving only switches in the perceptual dimension to attend (color or shape) and another also switching the response set. High-schizotypy subjects consistently showed increased switch costs in incongruent trials for both versions of the tasks, demonstrating a deficit in the selection of the perceptual dimension instead of the selection of the response rules.