Abnormalities in visual exploration affect the daily lives of patients with schizophrenia; however, its origin is unknown. In this study, we examined whether such abnormalities reflect aberrant processing of visual salience. Eye movements of 82 patients and 252 healthy individuals viewing natural and/or complex images were examined using saliency maps for static images to determine the contributions of low-level visual features to salience-guided eye movements. The results showed that the gazes of the participants with schizophrenia were attracted to position in the images with high orientation salience but not luminance or color salience. Further analyses revealed that orientation salience defined by the L+M channel of the DKL color space is specifically affected in schizophrenia, suggesting abnormalities in the magnocellular visual pathway. These results suggest aberrant processing of visual salience in schizophrenia, thereby connecting the dots between abnormalities in early visual processing and the aberrant salience hypothesis of psychosis.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This research was supported in part by AMED under Grant Numbers JP19dm0207069 (MY and KM), JP21dk0307103 (RH), JP21wm0425012 (KM and RH), JP18dm0307002 (RH), and JP21uk1024002 (KM and RH); JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers 22H02936 (MY), JP20H03611 (RH), JP19H05467 (RH), JP20K06920 (KM); and Intramural Research Grant (3-1 and 4-6) for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP (KM and RH).

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

the Research Ethical Committee of Osaka University, the Research Ethical Committee of the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, and the Research Ethical Committee of Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences, Hokkaido University

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