Visual contrast sensitivity in adults with schizophrenia and relatives not affected

The aim of this study was to measure visual contrast sensitivity (CS) for vertical sine-wave gratings with spatial frequencies of 0,6; 5 and 10 in adults with medicated schizophrenic and no-affected relatives in the range of 20-30 years old. We measured the visual CS for ten volunteers without schizophrenia, nine schizophrenia patients and five no-affected relatives, all volunteers were free from identifiable ocular disease and had normal acuity, except the condition schizophrenia. We use a temporal two-alternative forced-choice psychophysical method with mean luminance of 40.1 cd/m². The results showed maximum contrast sensitivity occurred in the range of 5.0 cpd for both groups and that the visual CS for participants with schizophrenia was lower than those of adults without schizophrenia and the non-affected relatives. These results showed changes in the visual mechanisms that process vertical sine-wave gratings related the schizophrenia.