Alterations of perception and consciousness in psychosis 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Alterations of perception and consciousness in psychosis. A psychophysical investigation of changed phenomenology (APCP)
IRAS ID
340954
Contact name
Paul Azzopardi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Research Governance, Ethics and Assurance
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 0 days
Research summary
This experimental study aims to investigate subtle changes in perception and consciousness in 3 clinical groups: High Risk Psychosis (HRP), First Episode Psychosis (FEP), and Chronic Schizophrenic (CS).
The participants will be invited to come to the lab on two (ideally consecutive) days for 4 hours each (8 hours in total). There is only one assessment time point, which, however, takes place over two days. Participants will be invited to:Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom.
Four novel behavioural paradigms have been designed that to capture experiential changes in the perception of a.) a visual motion after effect (illusions); b.) Gestalt perception of figures; c.) global vs. local perception of semantic images/letters; c.) integration of semantic and visual information and the consecutive narrative of the choice. Next to the experimental design, participants will be asked to part take in a phenomenological interview, which asks them about their perceptual experiences in their day-to-day life. All for experiments and the interview will take place in a laboratory.
The aim is to capture changes in perceptual consciousness and to investigate the underling mechanisms.
In the long term, this will hopefully benefit people with schizophrenia as it tries to find an alternative way of explaining schizophrenia and thus, also potentially aid treatment recommendations.
The paradigm is closely related and aims to capture people’s lived experiences.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EM/0270
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion