Impaired Visual Object Recognition and Dorsal/Ventral Stream Interaction in Schizophrenia

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Abstract
SCHIZOPHRENIA MANIFESTS itself in symptoms that encompass a wide range of human mental activities.1 Deficits in high-order processes such as working memory and executive processing have been extensively studied. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to disturbances in perceptual processing, as can be demonstrated in the auditory, visual, and somatosensory modalities.2 In the visual modality, patients with schizophrenia show deficits in eye tracking and motion perception and require prolonged viewing time to recognize briefly presented stimuli.3-5 Patients also demonstrate increased sensitivity to visual backward masking, which is associated with impaired functioning of the magnocellular visual pathway.6-8 Severity of visual-processing deficits in schizophrenia correlates with poor outcome on social-functioning measures.9 Therefore, mechanisms underlying visual-processing dysfunction in schizophrenia may be informative regarding the underlying cause of the disease.