Neurophysiological correlates of visual backward masking deficits in schizotypy

C Cappe1, O Favrod2, C Mohr3, M Herzog2

1CerCo, CNRS, University of Toulouse, France
2Laboratory of Psychophysics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
3Institut de Psychologie, Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques, Switzerland
Contact: celine.cappe@epfl.ch

Schizophrenic patients are strongly deteriorated in visual backward masking. Masking deficits are of great interest because they are stable and specific markers of the disease. Masking deficits in patients are reflected in reduced amplitudes of the EEG pointing to a diminished target representation. Recently, we showed that also unaffected students with high scores in schizotypy (cognitive disorganization) have backward masking deficits compared to students with low scores. Here, we tested healthy undergraduate students with extreme scores (high or low) in cognitive disorganisation. As schizophrenic patients, healthy students with high scores in cognitive disorganisation had diminished amplitudes in the EEG. Interestingly, high cognitive disorganisation students showed a strongly increased late component in the EEG which was not present in patients and low cognitive disorganisation student controls. This enhanced component might be related to a compensation mechanism which is not present in the patients. Our results show further evidence that visual backward masking is a potential endophenotype of schizophrenia.

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