A potential qualitative endophenotype for schizophrenia: Backward masking response to red light

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 166; no. 2; pp. 166 - 173
• Main Authors: Bedwell, Jeffrey S, Orem, Diana M, Rassovsky, Yuri, Allen, Luis G, Sutterby, Scott R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 30-04-2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Case-Control Studies; Cognitive; Color Perception; Female; Genetic; Humans; Light; Location backward masking; Magnocellular visual pathway; Male; Masking by pattern; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perceptual Masking; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Performance; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Schizophrenic Psychology; Visual processing; Magnocellular visual pathway; Genetic; Visual processing; Cognitive; Masking by pattern; Location backward masking; Schizophrenia; Cognition; Endophenotype; Psychosis; Magnocellular pathway; Visual pathway; Vision; Information processing; Perception; Genetics; Masking
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2008.03.013

Abstract Past research with unaffected relatives of individuals with schizophrenia has suggested a new qualitative endophenotype for schizophrenia that involves a unique change in visual processing response to red light. The current study provides the first report of this “red light effect” in individuals with schizophrenia ( N = 15), compared with nonpsychiatric controls ( N = 16), using a location backward masking by pattern paradigm with red and green background conditions. Analyses revealed a statistically significant group difference in the overall change in accuracy to a red background. Controls tended to show an increase in accuracy with the red (compared with green) background, although the medium effect size was not statistically significant in the small sample. In contrast, participants with schizophrenia showed a statistically significant decrease in accuracy with the red background. Results support recent reports which have suggested that a unique change in visual processing in response to red light may represent a new endophenotype for schizophrenia. This effect is unique from most existing endophenotypes in that it represents a distinct qualitative performance pattern rather than simply poorer performance relative to a comparison group.