ATTENTIONAL ASYMMETRY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - THE ROLE OF ILLNESS SUBTYPE AND SYMPTOMATOLOGY

1. Patients with undifferentiated and paranoid schizophrenia, and norm al controls were compared using 2 versions Of the covert orienting of attention procedure which evaluate exogenous (automatic) and endogenou s (controlled) cuing mechanisms. 2. For both tasks, attentional perfor mance varied with illness subtype, but in different ways. 3. On measur es of automatic orienting undifferentiated patients showed evidence co nsistent with a mild right visual field deficit, while paranoid showed a reduction of inhibition-of-return, a mechanism which biases against returning to previously attended locations. 4. On measures of control led orienting only the undifferentiated group showed the asymmetry of costs which has been the emphasis of most previous studies. The patter n of cost asymmetry was similar to that previously associated with pro minent negative symptoms. Additionally, the magnitude of cost asymmetr y correlated positively with negative symptoms in the overall patient group.5. These findings show that systematically considering cue type and symptomatology are critical in interpreting varying patterns of pe rformance by different groups of patients with schizophrenia on the co vert orienting procedure. The implications of these findings for under standing the psychopathology of attention in schizophrenia and its neu robiological substrates are discussed.