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Individuals with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) are thought to be phenotypically
related to individuals with schizophrenia. This assumption is partially supported
by the fact that SPD patients have deficits on biological markers similar to those
found in schizophrenia. Visual backward masking (VBM) performance and critical stimulus
duration (CSD), measures of information processing found to be abnormal in schizophrenia
patients, were assessed in 14 SPD and 21 comparison subjects. There was no significant
difference between groups in VBM performance; however; there were significant correlations
between VBM deficits and the number of SPD symptoms, as well as elevated scores on
the Ego Impairment Index (EII). Additionally, there was a trend (p = .056) toward elevations in CSD in the SPD versus the comparison group and CSD inflation
appears to be most prominent in individuals with a greater number of social deficit
symptoms and elevated physical anhedonia scores. These findings suggest an important
relationship between symptoms of SPD and neurophysiologic deficits.
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Article info
Publication history
Received in revised form:
August 25,
1995
Received:
April 27,
1995
Footnotes
This work was supported by an NIMH National Research Service Award Individual Fellowship to Dr. Cadenhead (MH10072-03) and by NIMH grant MH42228 to Dr. Braff.
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Copyright
© 1996 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc.
