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Smooth pursuit and saccadic abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 13:36 authored by S B Hutton, T J Crawford, B K Puri, L J Duncan, M Chapman, C Kennard, T R Barnes, E M Joyce
BACKGROUND: Previous studies of oculomotor dysfunction in schizophrenia have tended to concentrate on abnormalities of smooth pursuit eye tracking in chronic medicated patients. We report the results of a study of smooth pursuit, reflexive and antisaccade performance in drug naive and antipsychotic treated first-episode schizophrenic patients. METHODS: Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements were recorded in 36 first-episode schizophrenic patients and 36 controls matched for age and estimated IQ. The schizophrenic patients were divided into drug-naive (N = 17) and antipsychotic treated groups (N = 19). RESULTS: Smooth pursuit velocity gain was significantly lower than controls only in the drug-naive patients. The treated patients did not differ significantly from either the controls or the untreated group. In an antisaccade paradigm both treated and drug-naive schizophrenic patients demonstrated an increased number of errors, but only drug-naive patients also demonstrated an increased latency in initiating correct antisaccades. CONCLUSIONS: These impairments are unlikely to be due to a generalized deficit in oculomotor function in the schizophrenic groups, as there were no differences between the groups in saccadic metrics on a reflexive saccade task. The results show that both smooth pursuit and saccadic abnormalities are present at the onset of schizophrenia and are integral to the disorder.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Psychological Medicine

ISSN

0033-2917

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Issue

3

Volume

28

Page range

685-692

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2006-12-06

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