An article by Jahshan et al. (2012) claims to have demonstrated intact pre-perceptual processing in a large group of chronic schizophrenic patients. The debate on relative deficits in pre-attentive versus conscious cognitive processes remains unresolved. As the authors wish to make a definitive statement and there are major discrepancies in the literature, it is important to ascertain whether their methodology holds up to more detailed scrutiny (Vakalopoulos, 2011).By using a disc/ring metacontrast, congruent and incongruent trials on reaction times are examined depending on same or different colours for the primes and targets. The claim however, that a stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA of 62.5 ms effectively masks the prime and renders the task nonconscious is not convincing.
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