Animal models and measures of perceptual processing in Schizophrenia

• Discusses animal paradigms for assessing perception.
• CNTRICS breakout group addressed candidate tests of perception.
• Concepts included gain control and visual integration.
• Comparability of tasks across species was discussed.
• Criteria included validity; homology and dynamic range.

This paper summarizes the discussions regarding animal paradigms for assessing perception at the seventh meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (CNTRICS). A breakout group at the meeting addressed candidate tests in animals that might best parallel the human paradigms selected previously in the CNTRICS program to assess two constructs in the domain of perception: gain control and visual integration. The perception breakout group evaluated the degree to which each of the nominated tasks met pre-specified criteria: comparability of tasks across multiple species; construct validity; neuroanatomical homology between species; and dynamic range across parametric variation.