Behavioral and electrographic measures of attention in children at risk for schizophrenia.

A previous study by H. Grunebaum et al (see record 1975-00816-001) found that 5-yr-old children of schizophrenic mothers were impaired on visual attention tasks as compared with controls. No difference was observed in 6-yr-olds, however. This study reexamined the attentive behavior of 12 of these children 3 yrs later. In addition, evoked potentials to various visual stimuli were obtained. Group differences could no longer be found in visual attentive behavior; however, the risk group had evoked potentials of significantly higher amplitude and, under certain conditions, of longer latency than the controls. These findings suggest a maturational lag in visual stimulus processing in these children at risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)