Sofia Guzzoni

Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by visual and auditory hallucinations, which are perceptions in the absence of external stimuli. It is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that does not present physical symptoms or clear warning signs until later in adolescence and even adulthood. Impairments in the auditory and visual systems contribute to social cognition deficits, making it difficult for the individual to interact socially. This is observed in individuals with schizophrenia and includes difficulties in discerning between two different tones, recognizing emotion through tone and facial expressions, detecting motion when presented with a moving stimulus, and determining whether there is a contrast between a stimulus and its background. Although these skills are known to be impaired in patients with schizophrenia, there is little research regarding how these visual and auditory skills develop in healthy children, making it difficult to discern when these neurodevelopmental impairments begin in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, all previous research has been performed using small age ranges, not capturing the whole development of the visual and auditory systems. Therefore, more research must be done on these mechanisms over a wider age range. 

I will be collecting data from students ranging from 1st to 12th grade using a series of tasks. The visual stimuli being used will require students to determine motion, contrast, and facial expressions, while auditory stimuli will require students to discern between tones and match them, as well as to determine the emotion of a presented facial expression.  My study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the developmental trajectory of auditory and visual processing skills across a wide age range, from early childhood to late adolescence. I will be studying the relationship between the data I collect on healthy developing children by comparing it first to healthy adults and then comparing the data I collect to that from people with schizophrenia. This comparison will help me gauge when performance on tasks becomes dramatically different from patients with schizophrenia and when performance becomes the same as healthy adults, helping me understand when neurodevelopmental impairments associated with schizophrenia may begin and how they progress.