Can an experimental white noise task assess psychosis vulnerability in adult healthy controls?

BACKGROUND: This is an extension of a paper published earlier. We investigated the association between the tendency to detect speech illusion in random noise and levels of positive schizotypy in a sample of 185 adult healthy controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subclinical positive, negative and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE); positive and negative schizotypy was assessed with the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R). RESULTS: Speech illusions were associated with positive schizotypy (OR: 4.139, 95% CI: 1.074–15.938; p = 0.039) but not with negative schizotypy (OR: 1.151, 95% CI: 0.183–7.244; p = 0.881). However, the association of positive schizotypy with speech illusions was no longer significant after adjusting for age, sex and WAIS-III (OR: 2.577, 95% CI: 0.620–10.700; p = 0.192). Speech illusions were not associated with self-reported CAPE measures. CONCLUSIONS: The association between schizotypy and the tendency to assign meaning in random noise in healthy controls may be mediated by cognitive ability and not constitute an independent trait.