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Abstract

Differential predictions stemming from opposing arousal theories of chronic schizophrenia were examined in terms of reaction time performance and metanephrine-normetanephrine excretion in arousing situations. It was found that schizophrenics and non-psychotics both manifested behavioral deficit; schizophrenics' normetanephrine level was lower than that of other groups; reactivity of schizophrenics and normals, both behavioral and biochemical, was similar; non-psychotics demonstrated a tendency toward no behavioral reactivity to intense stimulation but manifested a biochemical response not different from other groups. A theoretical conceptualization of behavioral and biochemical change in response to increasingly intense stimulation was developed utilizing two hypothesized cumulative reactivity functions.

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Reaction Time and Normetanephrine-Metanephrine Excretion under Intense Stimulation in Chronic Schizophrenics,Non-Psychotics,and Normals

Abstract

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