Childhood Attentional Dysfunctions Predict Social Deficits in Unaffected Adults at Risk for Schizophrenia

Converging lines of evidence suggest that attentional dysfunctions are indicators of a biological susceptibility to some forms of schizophrenia. More specifically, following the criteria outlined by Holzman (1983), impaired attention can be considered a potential biological marker because of the: (a) well replicated association between schizophrenia and attentional dysfunctions in patients, both when in episode and in remission (Nuechterlein (b) evidence that attentional problems can be detected in unaffected first-degree adult relatives of schizophrenic patients (Wood Keefe et al , 1989, Steinhauer et al , 1991) (c) reports from a number of high-risk studies that attentional deficits pre-date clinical symptoms by many years (Rutschmann et al , 1977; Nuechterlein, 1983; Cornblatt Mirsky et al , 1986; Erlenmeyer-Kimling Mirsky, 1988) and (4) preliminary results suggesting that attention per se is genetically transmitted (Cornblatt et al , 1988).