Electrophysiological correlates of visual backward masking in high schizotypic personality traits participants

Visual backward masking is strongly deteriorated in patients with schizophrenia. Masking deficits are associated with strongly reduced amplitudes of the global field power in the EEG. Healthy participants who scored high in cognitive disorganization (a schizotypic trait) were impaired in backward masking compared to participants who scored low. Here, we show that the global field power is also reduced in healthy participants scoring high (n = 25) as compared to low (n = 20) in cognitive disorganization, though quantitatively less pronounced than in patients (n=10). These results point to similar mechanisms underlying visual backward masking deficits along the schizophrenia spectrum.