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The misattribution of salience in delusional patients with schizophrenia . INTRODUCTION Delusions may arise from abnormalities in emotional perception . In this study , we tested the hypothesis that delusional schizophrenia patients are more likely than non-delusional schizophrenia patients and healthy participants to assign affective meanings to neutral stimuli . METHODS Unpleasant , pleasant , and neutral words were randomly presented to three subject groups -- patients with schizophrenia with prominent delusions , patients with schizophrenia without delusions , and healthy participants . Participants performed three tasks : one in which they decided whether a letter string was a word or a non-word ( lexical decision ) and two affective classification tasks in which they judged whether words were 1 ) neutral or unpleasant , or 2 ) neutral or pleasant . RESULTS While there were no significant between-group differences in lexical decision performance , patients with delusions showed selective performance deficits in both affective classification tasks . First , delusional patients were significantly more likely than non-delusional patients and healthy participants to classify words as unpleasant . Second , delusional patients took significantly longer than both other groups to correctly classify neutral words in both affective classification tasks . CONCLUSIONS Taken together , these findings suggest that delusions are associated with the explicit misattribution of salience to neutral stimuli .
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Intervention_Educational
Unpleasant , pleasant , and neutral words were randomly presented to three subject groups -- patients
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Intervention_Educational
one in which they decided whether a letter string was a word or a non-word ( lexical decision ) and two affective classification tasks
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Intervention_Educational
neutral or unpleasant
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Intervention_Educational
neutral or pleasant
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Outcome_Mental
lexical decision performance
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Outcome_Mental
selective performance deficits
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Outcome_Mental
classify words as unpleasant .
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Outcome_Mental
correctly classify neutral words
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Outcome_Mental
explicit misattribution of salience to neutral stimuli
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Participant_Condition
delusional
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Participant_Condition
schizophrenia
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Participant_Condition
delusional schizophrenia
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Participant_Sample-size
three
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Participant_Condition
schizophrenia with prominent delusions ,
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Participant_Condition
schizophrenia without delusions