Disengagement of Attention in Chronic Schizophrenia

Posner et al. (1988) recently found a lateralized impairment in the shift of covert visual attention to the right visual field in acute schizophrenic patients. Strauss et al. (1991) did not find this lateralized attentional deficit in remitted neuroleptic-treated chronic schizophrenic outpatients. The present study examined the covert shifting of visuospatial attention in clinically ill inpatients with chronic schizophrenia and in nonpsychotic control subjects. Although patients with schizophrenia were slower in all conditions, no lateralized attentional abnormalities were found. Taken together, these studies suggest that neuroleptic treatment may affect a lateralized attentional impairment in chronic schizophrenia.