Eyelid conditioning and arousal in schizophrenic and normal subjects.

Abstract

A group of schizophrenic patients were compared with normal subjects on an eyelid-conditioning task. All subjects received 50 trials to either a light or a tone CS [conditioned stimulus] and the UCS [unconditioned stimulus] was an air puff to the eye. The principal findings were as follows the number of conditioned responses was shown to be related to level of skin potential in both normal and schizophrenic subjects; the schizophrenic group gave more conditioned responses than the normal group and this was associated with higher skin potentials in the patient group; the level of skin potential was found to be related to withdrawal and the more withdrawn subjects gave more conditioned responses; a differential effect was found between normal and schizophrenic subjects and the modality of the CS.