Although similarities between the cognitive deficits observed in schiz
ophrenia and those observed in aging have been recognized for over 50
years, little work has been done to directly examine these similaritie
s or their implications for late-life schizophrenia. We review studies
of prepulse inhibition, habituation, latent inhibition, and negative
priming that indicate marked similarities in the patterns of deficits
observed in schizophrenia and in aging. We also present new data from
preliminary studies of prepulse inhibition and negative priming in whi
ch we compared young normal controls, older adult normal controls, and
late-life schizophrenia patients. For both measures, both schizophren
ia patients and older adults showed an inhibitory deficit relative to
young controls. In the case of negative priming, older schizophrenia p
atients showed evidence of greater inhibitory dysfunction than did nor
mal older adults, suggesting that older schizophrenia patients suffer
a deficit resulting from the combined effects of schizophrenia and agi
ng. The implications of these results and directions for future resear
ch are discussed.