Auditory signal detectability and facilitation of simple reaction time in psychiatric patients and non-patients.

Patients diagnosed on the basis of structured interviews as having affective psychoses were less sensitive in detecting the presence of a transient auditory signal than were schizophrenic patients or non-patients. Patients with affective psychoses also benefited more (their reaction time was more reduced) than the other two groups from the presence of a second auditory transient.