Modulating effect of positive emotion arousal on inhibition of return in schizophrenia

Previous research has primarily examined the effect of negative emotional arousal intensity on inhibition of return (IOR) in patients with schizophrenia. However, whether positive stimuli of different arousal levels exhibit asymmetry remains unclear. Using a dual-cue paradigm with central cue, the present study systematically investigated the impact of positive emotions with varying arousal levels—specifically, positive high arousal, positive low arousal, and neutral low arousal stimuli—presented at either the cue location or the target location, on IOR in patients with schizophrenia during the attentional disengagement and reorientation stages. The results revealed that when stimuli were presented at the cue location, both the schizophrenia group and the control group exhibited significantly larger IOR effects under the positive high arousal condition. In contrast, when stimuli were presented at the target location, only the control group showed a larger IOR effect under the positive high arousal condition, whereas no significant differences were observed across conditions in the schizophrenia group. These findings indicate that the modulation of the IOR effect by positive emotions is influenced by arousal level and exhibits an asymmetry across attentional processing stages. During the attention disengagement stage, healthy individuals may be more easily drawn to positive high arousal stimuli, whereas patients with schizophrenia are not. During the attentional reorientation stage, healthy individuals may show an approach preference toward positive high arousal targets, while patients with schizophrenia may display a weakened approach tendency.