Trait vs. State Markers for Schizophrenia: Identification and Characterization Through Visual Processes

Abstract

One central issue in schizophrenia research is to identify and characterize behavioral and biological markers that are intrinsic to the complex psychiatric disorder and that can serve as targets for detection, treatment, and prevention. A trait marker represents the properties of the behavioral and biological processes that play an antecedent, possibly causal, role in the pathophysiology of the psychiatric disorder, whereas a state marker reflects the status of clinical manifestations in patients. Certain visual functions, while deficient in schizophrenia, may be independent of psychosis. The question of what types of visual functions can serve as trait or state markers is beginning to be understood. Examining clinically unaffected relatives of schizophrenia patients and patients with bipolar disorder can provide information about the relationship between a schizophrenic disposition and visual response traits. In this effort, researchers found that motion integration is dysfunctional in schizophrenia patients but not in their relatives or bipolar patients, whereas motion discrimination is dysfunctional in schizophrenia patients and their relatives, but not in bipolar patients. By synthesizing these findings, this review suggests that distinguishing enduring trait markers from transient state markers for schizophrenia through visual processes is helpful for developing neurobiologically and psychologically based intervention strategies.

The concept of FDG-PET endophenotype in Alzheimer’s disease

“…We regard this as a conceptual fallacy contributing to the confusion between the concepts of “trait marker” and “state marker” of a disease [82], the former referring to an enduring and “state-independent” phenotype and the latter to the punctual expression of pathology. Such a simplification may be due to five main factors: (1) the high accuracy of FDG-PET in the diagnosis and prediction of both AD and MCI; (2) the almost mechanistic relationship between ApoE E4 and AD; (3) the concept of endophenotype itself—which allows being considered a vulnerability marker or measurement of risk for a disease [7, 8]; (4) its potential contribution to the study of disease mechanisms [6]; (5) and the fact that, for some authors, it can be age-normed [13], which places the endophenotype on a timeline between the gene and the disease (see Fig.…”

Prolonged temporal interaction for peripheral visual processing in schizophrenia: Evidence from a three-flash illusion

“…Visual processing deficits have been extensively demonstrated in schizophrenia (Butler and Javitt 2005; Butler et al 2008; Chen et al 2006), including those in the processing of temporal information (Carroll et al 2008; Green et al 1994c; Norton et al 2008; Swerdlow et al 2014; Wynn et al 2013). However, there has been little focus on the processing outside the fovea, especially for dynamic temporal stimuli.…”

A female advantage in basic face recognition is absent in schizophrenia

“…Firstly, while the gender difference in patients was non-significant for each aspect of basic face recognition, these null results should be confirmed in a larger patient population. Secondly, basic face detection relies on the processing of visual information, Deficient visual perception has been found in schizophrenia (Butler and Javitt, 2005; Chen et al, 2006). Whether some aspects of the visual processing deficit are gender-related and play a role in diminished performance on face detection have yet to be examined.…”