Is it possible that intricate beliefs like paranoia originate from something as fundamental as vision? Recent research from Yale provides intriguing evidence that this could indeed be the case.
In a visual perception experiment, participants were tasked with determining whether one moving dot was pursuing another moving dot. The study discovered that individuals who showed stronger tendencies toward paranoid thinking (the belief that others may mean them harm) and teleological thinking (the tendency to assign excessive significance and purpose to events) performed poorly compared to their peers. These individuals were more likely to assert — often with conviction — that one dot was chasing another, even when it wasn’t happening.
Published on December 17 in the journal Communications Psychology, the study hints that testing for mental health conditions like schizophrenia in the future may be achievable through a simple eye exam.
“Our primary interest lies in understanding the organization of the mind,” explained senior author Philip Corlett, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a member of the Wu Tsai Institute. “Intentional actions, like chasing, are often viewed as high-level cognitive experiences that require reasoning. However, our study reveals that these processes can emerge from lower-level visual perception, which we find both fascinating and significant, especially regarding their implications for schizophrenia.”
Paranoia and teleological thinking share similarities, both representing misinterpretations of intention. However, paranoia generally reflects a negative viewpoint, while teleological thinking is more positive. Both cognitive styles are associated with psychosis and schizophrenia.
Hallucinations, which also relate to psychosis, often involve perceptions of other people, according to Corlett. This suggests that there could be a social element contributing to these visual misinterpretations.
“This led us to investigate whether there is a connection to social perception — or misperception, what we might call social hallucination — that we could measure, which links to symptoms of psychosis,” he noted.
During the task, participants viewed moving dots on a screen. At times, one dot appeared to chase another; at other times, there was no pursuit. Participants were required to determine whether a chase was occurring for each trial.
Those exhibiting higher levels of paranoia and teleological thinking (assessed through questionnaires) were more prone than others to confidently state that a chase was happening, even when it wasn’t. In essence, they misinterpreted an interaction that was not taking place.
In follow-up experiments, participants were asked to indicate which dot was the pursuer and which was being pursued. In these additional results, paranoia and teleological thinking exhibited distinct patterns.
“Individuals with paranoia struggled particularly with identifying which dot was being chased,” stated Santiago Castiello, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Corlett’s lab. “On the other hand, people exhibiting high teleological thinking had difficulty recognizing which dot was doing the chasing.”
This divergence between the two types of beliefs underscores their distinct nature and suggests potential implications for diagnosis and treatment, as noted by the researchers. The connection to visual perception could also transform current understandings of how psychotic symptoms manifest within the brain.
“Very few individuals who are congenitally blind develop schizophrenia,” Castiello remarked. “This discovery of social hallucinations tied to vision prompts me to consider if schizophrenia arises from mistakes in how individuals perceive the visual environment.”
Although these findings do not have immediate therapeutic applications, gaining deeper insights into these thought patterns could inform the development of pharmacological treatments and risk assessments.
“One area we are currently exploring is whether specific eye tests can predict an individual’s risk for psychosis,” concluded Corlett. “Perhaps there is a quick perceptual task that can help identify when someone may benefit from meeting with a clinician.”
