A Physiological Difference Between Hallucinosis and Schizophrenia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Boulton (1971), in an authoritative review, has pointed out that biochemical research into schizophrenia has depended upon the assumption that hallucinogens, such as mescaline and LSD produce a state similar to schizophrenia, and that such research has therefore principally been concerned with attempts to find hallucinogens, or substances closely related to them, in the bodily fluids of schizophrenics. Since this model has been criticized on phenomenological grounds, we decided to make a comparison between states of visual hallucinosis and of schizophrenia with thought disorder, using a measure which tests a common hypothesis concerning the origin of schizophrenic symptoms. This hypothesis suggests that the symptoms of schizophrenia are manifestations of failure of a hypothetical sensory ‘filter’ (Broadbent, 1958). This mechanism determines the individual's ‘selective inattention’ to the irrelevancies of his environment. Its function can be assessed by a study of habituation, which is the process whereby a randomly repeated stimulus fails in time to elicit an orienting response.

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: