Does the ability to sustain attention underlie symptom severity in schizophrenia?

An association between deficits in executive control, particularly inhibitory control, and more severe negative and disorganised symptoms of schizophrenia has been widely reported. The importance of more basic aspects of attention, often referred to as 'vigilant' or 'sustained' attention, to this relationship remains unclear. This study examined the contribution of sustained attention to symptom severity using the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in 69 patients with schizophrenia. We found that negative and disorganised symptom severity scores were correlated with sustained attention, working memory, and psychomotor speed. The ability to sustain attention significantly predicted variance in negative symptom severity but not disorganised symptoms, which were instead predicted by working memory performance. These data suggest that this component of attention at least partly explains variance in negative symptoms.