A study from Yale University claims that mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, can be identified or diagnosed through visual perception. The findings, published in Communications Psychology, could transform the way mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, are diagnosed.
How the study was conducted
Participants in the study sat in front of a screen and were asked to watch a series of moving dots. In some cases, the scenario was such that one dot followed another, while in others there was no pursuit at all. What the participants were asked to do was identify whether or not there was an element of pursuit. The researchers found that people with a tendency toward paranoid thinking performed poorly on the test, reporting more often — and more confidently — that they saw dots following each other when there was actually no movement.
Paranoia is associated with the mistaken attribution of bad intentions to others, while teleological thinking attributes a deeper purpose to events. According to experts, these are two conditions that are related to psychosis and schizophrenia, but they also have one key difference: While paranoia usually has a negative connotation, teleological thinking tends to be neutral or positive.
The study results revealed another interesting fact: When participants were asked to identify which point was the one that was haunting and which was the one that was being haunted, the answers varied depending on whether the participants were showing signs of paranoia or teleology.4
"Individuals with paranoia had difficulty identifying which point was being pursued, while individuals with high teleology had difficulty identifying the point being pursued," explained lead author Dr. Santiago Castiello.
This discrepancy indicates that the two disorders are driven by different cognitive mechanisms, which is essential to consider in future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
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