Attentional Biases Toward Social Stimuli: Group Differences, Clinical Correlates, and Cognition

The present study examined attentional biases toward social information in 42 individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and 47 healthy controls (HC). Participants completed a dot probe task designed to assess whether they exhibited a preferential gaze toward social (i.e. neutral faces) or nonsocial (i.e., flowers) visual stimuli, which yielded an attentional bias score. Clinical ratings were collected and performance on various cognitive domains was also assessed. Attentional bias group differences, clinical correlates, and cognitive correlates were then analyzed. The results indicated that the SZ and HC groups did not significantly differ in their attentional biases toward social stimuli, nor were there any significant correlations between attentional bias scores and clinical ratings in the SZ group. However, significant correlations between attentional bias scores and a subset of cognitive domains emerged; in the HC group, attentional bias was significantly correlated with processing speed and in the SZ group, attentional bias was significantly correlated with attention, working memory, and visual memory. This supported our hypothesis that social attentional biases would be significantly associated with nonsocial visual neuropsychological deficits. These findings have potential implications for treatment, as cognitive remediation methods targeting cognitive deficits in attention, processing speed, visual memory, or working memory may in turn have an effect on attentional biases toward social information. Additional research and modifications to the dot probe task are needed in order to further delineate the factors that influence attention to social stimuli in individuals with schizophrenia.