BACKGROUND: Little is known about visual hallucinations (VH) in psychosis. We investigated the prevalence and the role of bottom-up and top-down processing in VH. The prevailing view is that VH are probably related to altered top-down processing, rather than to distorted bottom-up processing. Conversely, VH in Parkinson's disease are associated with impaired visual perception and attention, as proposed by the Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model. Auditory hallucinations (AH) in psychosis, however, are thought to be related to increased attention. METHOD: Our retrospective database study included 1119 patients with non-affective psychosis and 586 controls. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences established the VH rate. Scores on visual perception tests [Degraded Facial Affect Recognition (DFAR), Benton Facial Recognition Task] and attention tests [Response Set-shifting Task, Continuous Performance Test-HQ (CPT-HQ)] were compared between 75 VH patients, 706 non-VH patients and 485 non-VH controls. RESULTS: The lifetime VH rate was 37%. The patient groups performed similarly on cognitive tasks; both groups showed worse perception (DFAR) than controls. Non-VH patients showed worse attention (CPT-HQ) than controls, whereas VH patients did not perform differently. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find significant VH-related impairments in bottom-up processing or direct top-down alterations. However, the results suggest a relatively spared attentional performance in VH patients, whereas face perception and processing speed were equally impaired in both patient groups relative to controls. This would match better with the increased attention hypothesis than with the PAD model. Our finding that VH frequently co-occur with AH may support an increased attention-induced 'hallucination proneness'.
BACKGROUND: Little is known about visual hallucinations (VH) in psychosis. We investigated the prevalence and the role of bottom-up and top-down processing in VH. The prevailing view is that VH are probably related to altered top-down processing, rather than to distorted bottom-up processing. Conversely, VH in Parkinson's disease are associated with impaired visual perception and attention, as proposed by the Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model. Auditory hallucinations (AH) in psychosis, however, are thought to be related to increased attention. METHOD: Our retrospective database study included 1119 patients with non-affective psychosis and 586 controls. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences established the VH rate. Scores on visual perception tests [Degraded Facial Affect Recognition (DFAR), Benton Facial Recognition Task] and attention tests [Response Set-shifting Task, Continuous Performance Test-HQ (CPT-HQ)] were compared between 75 VH patients, 706 non-VHpatients and 485 non-VH controls. RESULTS: The lifetime VH rate was 37%. The patient groups performed similarly on cognitive tasks; both groups showed worse perception (DFAR) than controls. Non-VHpatients showed worse attention (CPT-HQ) than controls, whereas VH patients did not perform differently. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find significant VH-related impairments in bottom-up processing or direct top-down alterations. However, the results suggest a relatively spared attentional performance in VH patients, whereas face perception and processing speed were equally impaired in both patient groups relative to controls. This would match better with the increased attention hypothesis than with the PAD model. Our finding that VH frequently co-occur with AH may support an increased attention-induced 'hallucination proneness'.
Entities:
Keywords:
Cognition; PAD model; prevalence; psychotic disorders; visual hallucinations
Authors: Giada Tripoli; Diego Quattrone; Laura Ferraro; Charlotte Gayer-Anderson; Caterina La Cascia; Daniele La Barbera; Crocettarachele Sartorio; Fabio Seminerio; Victoria Rodriguez; Ilaria Tarricone; Domenico Berardi; Stéphane Jamain; Celso Arango; Andrea Tortelli; Pierre-Michel Llorca; Lieuwe de Haan; Eva Velthorst; Julio Bobes; Miquel Bernardo; Julio Sanjuán; Jose Luis Santos; Manuel Arrojo; Cristina Marta Del-Ben; Paulo Rossi Menezes; Els van der Ven; Peter B Jones; Hannah E Jongsma; James B Kirkbride; Sarah Tosato; Antonio Lasalvia; Alex Richards; Michael O'Donovan; Bart P F Rutten; Jim van Os; Craig Morgan; Pak C Sham; Marta Di Forti; Robin M Murray; Graham K Murray Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2022-09-01 Impact factor: 7.348