The role of transient and sustained channels in masking was investigated in groups with positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia and in a control group. The target stimulus was a 3.0 c/deg sinusoidal grating, which was masked at 11 stimulus-onset asynchronies between -40 to 360 ms by a 1.0 c/deg mask or an 11.0 c/deg mask. The results showed that there was no difference between the control and positive-symptom groups in the perception of the 3 c/deg target stimulus, nor was there a difference when the target was masked by 1 or 11 c/deg masking stimuli. In comparison with the control and positive-symptom groups, the negative-symptom group showed a significantly higher threshold for the perception of the 3 c/deg target stimulus and more masking with a 1 c/deg mask, but not with an 11 c/deg mask. The results provide evidence for distinguishable differences in visual masking between groups with positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Psychology
Research Group:	Cognitive and computational psychology
Research Field:	Sensory processes, perception and performance
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in psychology
UTAS Author:	Slaghuis, WL (Dr Walter Slaghuis)
UTAS Author:	Curran, CE (Mr Charles Edward Curran)
ID Code:	17376
Year Published:	1999
Web of Science® Times Cited:	49
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	1999-08-01
Last Modified:	2000-05-13
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