Abstract
BACKGROUND: The simple reaction time task assesses the ability of the subject to respond to an external cue and to retrieve a reward. The reaction time provides an indirect index of the processing capability of the central nervous system and a simple means to the determined sensory and the motor performances, which is a neurobehavioural evaluation. A general slowness in the latency in the reaction time tasks and a disengagement deficit in the visual and the hearing oriented tasks were seen in schizophrenics. AIMS: In order to clarify the feature of the attention disorders in schizophrenia, a simple reaction time task was given to schizophrenics. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Schizophrenics (34 males and 20 females, n=54) and healthy controls (40 males and 21 females, n=61) with a mean age of 35±7, who were individually matched for gender and age, were included in the study, by using a response analyser to evaluate the reaction time. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The performances were expressed in mean ± standard deviation of the reaction time by using the unpaired 't' test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The schizophrenic patients performed poorer than the healthy controls, which indicated a difficulty in sustaining attention and this was statistically very highly significant (p<0.000). The results suggested that the schizophrenics showed inattentiveness in the clinical settings and an emotional disturbance in interpersonal situations. The increased reaction time as compared to that in healthy controls, might be due to the impairment of the psychomotor poverty, disorganization and reality distortion which were associated with the deficits in the cortical neurological functions, such as planning, coordination and sequencing of the motor acts, which showed a greater involvement of the frontal lobe and temporal lobe dysfunction.