Visual processing and attention deficits are responsible for a substantial portion of the disability caused by schizophrenia, but the source of these deficits remains unclear. In 35 schizophrenia patients (SzP) and 34 healthy controls (HC), we used a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) visual search task designed to activate/deactivate the cortical components of the attentional control system (i.e. the dorsal and ventral attention networks, lateral prefrontal regions in the frontoparietal network, and cingulo-opercular/salience networks), along with resting state functional connectivity, to examine the integrity of these components. While we find that behavioral performance and activation/deactivation of the RSVP task are largely similar between groups, SzP exhibited decreased functional connectivity within late visual components and between prefrontal and other components. We also find that performance correlates with the deactivation of the ventral attention network in SzP only. This relationship is mediated by the functional connectivity of critical components of the attentional control system. In summary, our results suggest that the attentional control system is potentially used to compensate for visual cortex deficits. Furthermore, prefrontal deficits in SzP may interfere with this compensatory use of the attentional control system. In addition to highlighting focal deficits and potential compensatory mechanisms in visual processing and attention, our findings point to the attentional control system as a potential target for rehabilitation and neuromodulation-based treatments for visual processing deficits in SzP.

视觉处理和注意力缺陷是精神分裂症所致残疾的很大一部分，但这些缺陷的根源尚不清楚。在35位精神分裂症患者（SzP）和34位健康对照（HC）中，我们使用了快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）视觉搜索任务，旨在激活/停用注意力控制系统（例如，背侧和腹侧注意网络，额叶前额网络中的外侧前额叶区域，以及扣舌-耳突/突触网络）以及静止状态功能连接，以检查这些组件的完整性。虽然我们发现小组之间的行为表现和RSVP任务的激活/停用在很大程度上相似，SzP表现出后期视觉组件内部以及额叶与其他组件之间的功能连接性降低。我们还发现，性能仅与SzP中腹侧注意网络的失活相关。这种关系是由注意力控制系统的关键组件的功能连通性来调节的。总而言之，我们的结果表明，注意力控制系统可能被用来补偿视觉皮层缺陷。此外，SzP的前额叶赤字可能会干扰注意力控制系统的这种补偿性使用。除了强调视觉处理和注意力的局灶性缺陷和潜在的补偿机制外，