Impaired performance on the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP) could be an endophenotype of schizophrenia

Abstract The aim of the present study was to investigate whether healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients show reduced sensitivity performance, higher intra-individual variability (IIV) in reaction time (RT), and a steeper decline in sensitivity over time in a sustained attention task. Healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients ( n = 23) and healthy control subjects ( n = 46) without a family history of schizophrenia performed a demanding version of the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP). RTs, hits, false alarms, and the sensitivity index A ′ were assessed. The relatives were significantly less sensitive, tended to have higher IIV in RT, but sustained the impaired level of sensitivity over time. Impaired performance on the RVIP is a possible endophenotype for schizophrenia. Higher IIV in RT, apparently caused by impaired context representations, might result in fluctuations in control and lead to more frequent attentional lapses.