A review of visual aftereffects in schizophrenia

Abstract

Psychosis-a cardinal symptom of schizophrenia-has been associated with a failure to appropriately create or use stored regularities about past states of the world to guide the interpretation of incoming information, which leads to abnormal perceptions and beliefs. The visual system provides a test bed for investigating the role of prior experience and prediction, as accumulated knowledge of the world informs our current perception. More specifically, the strength of visual aftereffects, illusory percepts that arise after prolonged viewing of a visual stimulus, can serve as a valuable measure of the influence of prior experience on current visual processing. In this paper, we review findings from a largely older body of work on visual aftereffects in schizophrenia, attempt to reconcile discrepant findings, highlight the role of antipsychotic medication, consider mechanistic interpretations for behavioral effects, and propose directions for future research.

Stronger tilt aftereffects in persons with schizophrenia.

“…Attesting to their clinical relevance, stronger tilt aftereffects were related to more severe negative symptoms, but only in the experimental condition in which significant aftereffects were observed to begin with. These data corroborate findings that hinted at stronger aftereffects for orientation and motion in schizophrenia (reviewed in Thakkar, Silverstein, et al, 2019), and circumvent methodological confounds present in those early studies. In the following sections, we consider mechanistic interpretations of these findings and relate these data to comprehensive computational and pathophysiological accounts of the illness.…”

“…An older body of work-conducted largely before 1970-is suggestive of altered visual aftereffects in schizophrenia. As we recently reviewed (Thakkar, Silverstein, & Brascamp, 2019), however, there are significant sources of variability across studies and methodological issues related to experimental design and clinical characterization that preclude conclusive interpretation of these aftereffect findings in schizophrenia. Our goal in the current study was to use rigorous psychophysical paradigms and comprehensive and current clinical characterization to investigate putative differences in aftereffect strength in individuals in schizophrenia and to explore correlations with clinical symptom severity.…”

“…Our primary question in the current study was whether there are alterations in aftereffect strength in individuals with schizophrenia, and, if so, whether the alterations in neural adaptation that putatively underlie visual aftereffect differences is primarily cortical or subcortical in nature, or both. Given prior work (reviewed in Thakkar, Silverstein, et al, 2019), we hypothesized that aftereffects of cortical origin (i.e. tilt aftereffects) would be stronger in persons with schizophrenia; investigation of negative afterimages was exploratory.…”

“…Stare at the crosshair for 20 seconds, then look at a blank wall.You should perceive the inverse of this image, which is an example of a visual aftereffect. This figure is reproduced fromThakkar, Silverstein, et al (2019).…”

Color painting predicts clinical symptoms in chronic schizophrenia patients via deep learning

“…Individuals with psychiatric disorders accompany different perception abilities [ 1 ]. There is strong evidence that psychotic patients showed overall abnormalities in the two constructs of visual perception, gain control and integration [ 2 ].…”