Responses to facial and non-facial stimuli presented tachistoscopically in either or both visual fields by patients with the Capgras delusion and paranoid schizophrenics

Abstract

An experiment was carried out designed primarily to test A B Joseph's suggestion that patients with Capgras delusion may have problems integrating information between the two cortical hemispheres; and at the same time it was meant to examine J Cutting's ideas linking schizophrenia in general, and the Capgras delusion in particular, to right hemisphere dysfunction. Three patients with the Capgras delusion and three matched controls diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenics were briefly presented pairs of line-drawn objects and photographs of faces randomly in the left visual field, the right visual field or bilaterally. The results with objects revealed no particular pattern of performance for either group; but, when faces were shown, the controls revealed the usual left visual field/right hemisphere advantage while for the Capgras group this was reversed. The results are not consistent with a simple prediction from Joseph's hypothesis but they are in accord with Cutting's theory though they also pose some problems for it, which are discussed.