SANP Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 2297-7007 2297-6981 EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG Farnsburgerstrasse 8 CH-4132 Muttenz 03215 10.4414/sanp.2021.03215 Original article Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders Specific aspects of aberrant salience: comparison between patients with or without psychosis and healthy participants Martinez Debora Laloyaux Julien Favrod Jérôme Silva Benedetta Della Libera Clara Larøi Frank Bonsack Charles Golay Philippe philippe.golay@chuv.ch Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne | Head of Research | Psychiatry | Lausanne | 1003 | SWITZERLAND 28 07 2021 172 04 0 0 Copyright: EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG 2021 EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG "Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy" is an open access publication of EMH published in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons licence attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0 International. You are free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. "Non-commercial" means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. The incorporation of publications in commercial products, the use of publications to advertise for commercial products or services and any other usage that directly or indirectly pursues commercial interests is subject to the express previous consent of the publishing house as part of a written agreement. Please send us your request in writing. Exact indication of the publication from which you would like to reproduce material and detailed information about its intended use help to facilitate and expedite request processing.

Aberrant salience is likely to be a key mechanism in the development of psychosis. This concept bridges the perceptual and the cognitive level but little is known about their respective roles in the emergence of psychosis. It has also been suggested that not all aspects of aberrant salience are specific to psychosis. The aim of this study was to compare patients with psychosis, patients with other psychiatric diagnoses and healthy, non-clinical participants on several psychological dimensions related to aberrant salience. A total of 432 French-speaking individuals participated in the study. 282 participants from the general population and 150 persons hospitalized in psychiatric institutions in Switzerland were assessed using the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS), the Internal and External Encoding Style Questionnaire (ESQ), the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS), the Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) and the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS). Three scores (PAS, ESQ & ASI-Sharpening of senses) were able to discriminate between psychiatric patients (both those with psychosis and those with other psychiatric diagnosis) and the general population while three other scores (HSPS, MIS and ASI-Heightened Cognition) discriminated patients with psychosis from both patients with other psychiatric diagnose and non-clinical participants. The results from the present study suggests that low-level processes (perception) were not specific to psychosis but rather to psychiatric disorders more generally. In contrast, aspects related to cognition, sensitivity, and ideation seems to be specific to psychosis. Future studies should examine whether aspects of cognition, sensitivity, and ideation play a more prominent role in the development of psychosis.