A review of abnormalities in the perception of visual illusions in schizophrenia

Daniel J. King, Joanne Hodgekins, Philippe A. Chouinard, Virginie-Anne Chouinard, Irene Sperandio

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77 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Specific abnormalities of vision in schizophrenia have been observed to affect high-level and some low-level integration mechanisms, suggesting that people with schizophrenia may experience anomalies across different stages in the visual system affecting either early or late processing or both. Here, we review the research into visual illusion perception in schizophrenia and the issues which previous research has faced. One general finding that emerged from the literature is that those with schizophrenia are mostly immune to the effects of high-level illusory displays, but this effect is not consistent across all low-level illusions. The present review suggests that this resistance is due to the weakening of top–down perceptual mechanisms and may be relevant to the understanding of symptoms of visual distortion rather than hallucinations as previously thought.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)734–751
Number of pages18
JournalPsychonomic Bulletin and Review
Volume24
Issue number3
Early online date11 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017

Keywords

  • Schizophrenia
  • Visual illusions
  • Low-level vision
  • High-level vision

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