The neutral stimuli detection deficits in delusion-prone individuals

Abstract

Aim. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the delusion-prone individuals tend to select relevant information among distractors in order to examine whether the occurrence of overt delusions could be preceded by specific features of attention functioning. Methods. Individuals with high and low susceptibility to delusions completed the experimental task relying on the search for the specified signal hidden among distractors. Results. The delusion-prone individuals did not select emotionally neutral signal more effectively than the non delusion-prone ones. What is more, they made more ‘false-alarm’ mistakes than the control group, especially at the later stage of the task related to the increased fatigue level. Conclusion. The delusion-proneness is not related to the excessive information selection ability.