Impaired attention, particularly the inability to attend selectively, is a prominent feature of schizophrenia. Schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic mental patients can be distinguished by differences in the wave forms of pairs of averaged auditory evoked responses recorded from scalp electrodes with a computer. In this study evoked response was used as a measure of attention. In a group of newly admitted schizophrenics, the authors found a relationship between individual clinical symptoms and the two-tone evoked response measure. These findings are consistent with the presence of a disturbance in the selective and inhibitory aspects of attention in certain schizophrenics.Abstract Teaser