RIGHT HEMISPATIAL INATTENTION AND MAGICAL IDEATION

In visual and tactile bisection tasks, healthy subjects have been repo rted to place the subjective midline towards the left of the objective midline. This phenomenon, known as ''pseudoneglect'', has been interp reted as a right hemispatial inattention due to hypodopaminergic activ ity of the left hemisphere mesocortical dopamine system. In schizophre nic patients pseudoneglect was previously found to be correlated with severity of psychotic symptoms. We administered a tactile bisection ta sk (rod centering) to 40 healthy students (20 women and 20 men). All p articipants also filled in the ''Magical Ideation'' scale which asks f or hallucination-like experiences and delusion-like beliefs. There was no significant pseudoneglect for the group as a whole. However, Magic al Ideation scores were significantly correlated to the size of relati ve right-sided inattention for the 20 men only. On the background of t he findings in patients with schizophrenia we conclude that, at least in healthy men, susceptibility to schizophrenia-like experiences and t houghts is likewise accompanied by an attentional shift towards the le ft hemispace.