Patients with schizophrenia exhibit impairments of conscious processing and an elevated threshold for conscious perception, while subliminal processing is preserved.

The sensory impairments in schizophrenia could be explained by a disorder of conscious top-down attentional amplification rather than by bottom-up processing deficits.

Bayesian models account for the emergence of delusions through inappropriate updating of conscious representations according to sensory evidence.

Brain-imaging and neurophysiological studies of schizophrenia reveal anomalies in long-distance connectivity and synchrony between distant brain areas that may have a pivotal role in the disruption of conscious access.

NMDA receptors may have an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: there is growing evidence that NMDA receptors are dysregulated in this affection, that they have a prominent role in long-distance top-down connectivity, and that their disruption may induce psychosis and disorders of consciousness in subjects without schizophrenia.