Embedded figures in schizophrenia: A main deficit but no specificity.

Visual deficits are core deficits of schizophrenia. Classically, deficits are determined with demanding psychophysical tasks requiring fine-grained spatial or temporal resolution. Less is known about holistic processing. Here, we employed the Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L-EFT) measuring classic aspects of Gestalt processing. A target shape is embedded in a context and observers have to detect as quickly as possible in which display the target is embedded. Targets vary in closure, symmetry, complexity, and good continuation. In all conditions, schizophrenia patients had longer RTs compared to controls and depressive patients and to a lesser extent compared to their siblings. There was no interaction suggesting that, once the main deficit of schizophrenia patients is discarded, there are no further deficits in Gestalt perception between the groups. This result is in line with a growing line of research showing that when schizophrenia patients are given sufficient time to accomplish the task, they perform as well as controls.