Conflict between irrelevant words and relevant colors in the Stroop task creates interference, long considered a measure of how well individuals focus attention. In the traditional card version of the Stroop task, schizophrenia patients exhibit increased interference, consistent with the distractibility they exhibit in everyday life. In contrast, on other versions of the Stroop task they show augmented facilitation (faster responding to congruent than to neutral trials). We suggest that schizophrenia patients possess adequate attentional resources to avoid interference when each letter string is presented individually but face difficulty when delays are imposed and multiple attentional demands appear. Although psychiatric symptomatology may contribute to different patterns of performance, there is no evidence that medication modulates this. (Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews Volume 3 Number 1, March 2004 42-59)
Researchers at Monash University have found physical differences in the brains of people who respond emotionally to others' feelings, compared to those who respond more rationally, in a study published in the journal NeuroImage. The work, led by Robert Eres from the University's School of Psychological Sciences, pinpointed correlations between grey matter density and cognitive and affective empathy.