Bedwell Jeffrey S, Orem Diana M
Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1390, USA.
Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2008 Nov;13(6):491-504. doi: 10.1080/13546800802605755.
Previous research has suggested that individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives show a change in backward masking performance with a red background that is in the opposite qualitative direction as that found in nonpsychiatric controls. The present study examines this effect in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy to explore the potential of this effect to be a useful new qualitative endophenotype for schizophrenia-spectrum traits.
The Abbreviated Youth Psychosis At-Risk Questionnaire was used to screen a large number of undergraduates for schizotypy symptoms. A sample of 23 participants scoring high on this measure were compared to a sample of 26 controls on a location backward masking task that was presented on both red and green backgrounds.
Consistent with findings in patients with schizophrenia, the participants reporting a high number of schizotypy features showed a decrease in performance to the red (compared to green) background and the controls showed a nonsignificant increase in performance--although this finding was limited to the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) value that approximated the SOA with the largest effect size in the previous schizophrenia study (69 ms).
Although limited to one SOA, results extend earlier findings approximating this SOA to include a psychometrically defined schizotypy sample.
先前的研究表明，精神分裂症患者及其亲属在红色背景下的反向掩蔽表现会发生变化，其定性方向与非精神科对照人群相反。本研究对心理测量定义的分裂型人格特质个体进行了此项效应的研究，以探索该效应作为精神分裂症谱系特质有用的新定性内表型的潜力。
使用简化版青少年精神病风险问卷对大量本科生进行分裂型人格特质症状筛查。将在该测量中得分高的23名参与者样本与26名对照样本在红色和绿色背景下进行的位置反向掩蔽任务中进行比较。
与精神分裂症患者的研究结果一致，报告大量分裂型人格特质特征的参与者在红色（与绿色相比）背景下的表现下降，而对照组的表现虽有增加但不显著——尽管这一发现仅限于刺激起始异步（SOA）值，该值接近先前精神分裂症研究中效应量最大的SOA（69毫秒）。
尽管仅限于一个SOA，但结果扩展了早期接近该SOA的研究结果，纳入了心理测量定义的分裂型人格特质样本。
