Psychopathology and Individual Differences in Latent Inhibition: Schizophrenia and Schizotypality

Abstract

Lubow and Kaplan review the findings on pathology-based individual differences in latent inhibition (LI). They analyze the outcomes of a broad set of studies that have examined individual differences in LI related to: schizophrenia, schizotypia, the administration of drugs known to provoke symptoms of schizophrenia and a variety of other, apparently unrelated, pathologies (anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, Parkinson's Disease). After reviewing experimental data, Lubow and Kaplan present two main theories (A-theory and R-theory) that allow the explanation of the phenomenon under consideration. The chapter ends with an attempt to relate LI abnormalities in schizophrenia to specific underlying cognitive mechanisms. The authors conclude that abnormal LI effects in those patients with schizophrenia appear to reflect the inability of schizophrenics to limit the contents of consciousness, with attenuated LI being associated with positive symptoms, and potentiated LI with negative symptoms of the condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)