Parental, genetic, biochemical & cognitive deficits observed early in life might be predictive of future difficulties. When these occur, they can be thought of as high-risk markers or signs of future problems. Cognitive deficits have been shown to be present in individuals who later develop schizophrenia. These deficits, primarily in the areas of attention & accurate perception of information, have also been found in individuals who are at high risk of schizophrenia. For this reason, several measures of attentional dysfunction were administered when the children in New York study were at the age of 7.
A measure used in New York High Risk project was Continuous Performance Test. This test measures sustained visual attention for period of up to 20 minutes. The person tested was instructed to respond to one particular type of stimulus by pressing a key & was then exposed to a series of different stimuli. For example, the possible stimuli might include the numbers from 0 to 9, & in each trial, a video monitor displays three of these numbers in random sequence. The task of the best participant was to press the response button only when a 1 in the middle position of the three number display is followed in the next stimulus set by a 9 in that same position.
The numbers in the left & right positions merely served as distractors. Two kind of errors were recorded. If the person failed to press the button after the correct series in the middle position, this was named as Error of Omission. If the person pressed the response button after a different sequence of numbers in the middle position, it was named Error of Commission. Children of mothers who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia scored more poorly on the CPT than either children of mothers who were seriously depressed or children in control group whose mothers had no known disorder. This finding suggests that the attentional difficulties the CPT measures are trait-linked characteristics that are not a function of current psychotic process.
None of the children had symptoms of psychosis when they were first tested. These CPT scores for kids also predicted whether or not they would be diagnosed later with schizophrenia . The study showed that CPT scores can be markers to determine which children are most at risk for later development . This study compared the patients, their siblings & normal controls. The pic attached showed that both the patients & their siblings made significant more errors than did the controls. These errors were both omission & commission.
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