Invention: Schizophrenia spotter

Diagnosing psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression is a difficult business – as many as 70% of people who experience a psychosis for the first time are misdiagnosed. So the need for an accurate and objective way of spotting these illnesses is much needed.

John Pettrigrew, professor of physiology at the University of Queensland in Australia, has found a way that this might be done.

His idea is based on a phenomenon that occurs when a viewer is presented with a different visual stimulus for each eye. When this happens, the brain switches from perceiving one image to the other, but patients suffering from conditions such as schizophrenia switch much more rapidly.

Pettigrew has created a device that incorporates the test above, and says it worked well on a limited number of volunteers.