Summary
Schizophrenics are known to have various disturbances of the visuomotor system. Whereas smooth pursuit eye movement disorders have been repeatedly confirmed, there are relatively few reports regarding possible disturbances of the saccadic system. In this study, the saccadic reaction times of 47 schizophrenic inpatients were investigated upon admission and later in the remitted state; 28 age- and sex-matched normal volunteers were tested as controls. Psychopathology and outcome were evaluated according to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Prognostic Scale. Light stimuli were presented at random direction, location (ranging from 0° to 20°) and duration (800, 1000, and 1200 ms). The eye movements were recorded by electro-oculography. Compared with the control group, schizophrenics revealed prolonged saccadic reaction times, which correlated with pronounced negative symptoms and an unfavourable course of the illness. The saccadic reaction times remained prolonged in schizophrenic patients. These findings suggest attentional deficits in schizophrenics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel LA, Troost BT, Dell'Osso LF (1983) The effects of age on normal saccadic characteristics and their variability. Vision Res 23:33–37
Andreasen NC, Olsen S (1982) Negative vs. positive schizophrenia: definition and validation. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39:789–794
Baloh RW, Yee RD, Honrubia V (1982) Clinical abnormalities of optokinetic nystagmus. In: Lennerstrand G, Zee DS, Keller EL (eds) Functional basis of ocular motility disorders. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp 311–320
Brezinova V, Kendell RE (1977) Smooth pursuit eye movements of schizophrenics and normal people under stress. Br J Psychiatry 130:59–63
Cancro R, Sutton S, Kerr JB, Sugarman AA (1971) Reaction time and prognosis in acute schizophrenia. J Nerv Ment Dis 153:351–359
Cegalis JA, Sweeney JA (1979) Eye movements in schizophrenia: a quantitative analysis. Biol Psychiatry 14:13–26
Couch FH, Fox JC (1934) Photographic study of ocular movements in mental disease. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 34:556–578
Crow TJ (1980) Molecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one disease process? Br Med J 280:66–68
Crow TJ (1985) The two-syndrome concept: origins and current status. Schizophr Bull 11:471–486
Diefendorf AR, Dodge R (1908) An experimental study of the ocular reactions of the insane from photographic records. Brain 31:451–489
Gaebel W (1988) Hemisphärenfunktionen und psychiatrische Erkrankungen. Nervenarzt 59:437–448
Geschwind N, Galaburda AM (1987) Cerebral lateralization. Biological mechanism, associations, and pathology. MIT Press, Boston
Holzman PS, Proctor LR, Hughes DW (1973) Eye tracking patterns in schizophrenia. Science 181:179–181
Howes D, Boller F (1975) Simple reaction time: evidence for focal impairment from lesions of the right hemisphere. Brain 98:317–332
Hutton JT, Palet J (1986) Lateral saccadic latencies and handedness. Neuropsychologia 24:449–451
Iacono WG, Koenig WGR (1983) Features that distinguish the smooth pursuit eye-tracking performance of schizophrenic, affective disorder, and normal individuals. J Abnorm Psychol 92:29–41
Kuechenmeister CA, Linton PH, Mueller TV, White HB (1977) Eye tracking in relation to age, sex, and illness. Arch Gen Psychiatry 34:578–599
Leigh KJ, Zee DS (1983) The neurology of eye movements. Davis, Philadelphia
Levin S, Holzman PS, Rothenburg SJ, Lipton RB (1981) Saccadic eye movements in psychotic patients. Psychiatry Res 5:48–58
Levin S, Jones A, Stark L, Merrin EL, Holzman PS (1982) Identification of abnormal patterns in eye movements of schizophrenic patients. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39:1125–1130
Lynch JG, Mountcastle VB, Talbot WH, Yin TCT (1977) Parietal lobe mechanisms for directed visual attention. J Neurophysiol 40:362–389
Mather JA, Putchat C (1983) Motor control of schizophrenics. I. Oculomotor control of schizophrenics: a deficit in sensory processing, not strictly in motor control. J Psychiatr Res 17:343–360
McGhie A, Chapman J (1961) Disorders of attention and perception in early schizophrenia. Br J Med Psychol 34:103–117
Mialet JP, Pichot P (1981) Eye-tracking patterns in schizophrenia: an analysis based on incidence of saccades. Arch Gen Psychiatry 38:183–186
Mountcastle VB (1978) Brain systems for directed attention. J R Soc Med 71:14–27
Nuechterlein KH (1977) Reaction time and attention in schizophrenia: a critical evaluation of the data and theories. Schizophr Bull 3:373–428
Nuechterlein KH, Dawson ME (1984) Information processing and attentional functioning in the developmental course of schizophrenic disorders. Schizophr Bull 10:160–203
Nuechterlein KH, Edell WS, Norris M, Dawson ME (1986) Attentional vulnerability indicators, thought disorder, and negative symptoms. Schizophr Bull 12:408–426
Overall JE (1976) The brief psychiatric rating scale in psychopharmacologic research. In: Guy W (ed) ECDEU assessment manual for psychopharmacology, revised. National Institute of Mental Health, Rockville, Md., pp 166–169
Overall JE, Gorham DR (1962) The brief psychiatric rating scale. Psychol Rep 10:799–812
Posner MI, Walker JA, Friedrich FJ, Rafal RD (1984) Effects of parietal lobe injury on covert orienting of visual attention. J Neurosci 4:1863–1874
Remington R, Pierce L (1984) Moving attention: evidence for time-invariant shifts of visual selective attention. Percept Psychophys 35:393–399
Rodnick E, Shakow D (1940) Set in the schizophrenic as measured by a composite reaction time index. Am J Psychiatry 97:214–225
Salzman LF, Klein RH, Strauss JS (1978) Pendulum eye tracking in remitted psychiatric patients. J Psychiatr Res 14:121–126
Schmid-Burgk W, Becker W, Jürgens R, Kornhuber HH (1983) Saccadic eye movements in psychiatric patients. Neuropsychobiology 10:193–198
Shagass C, Amadeo M, Overton DA (1974) Eye-tracking performance in psychiatric patients. Biol Psychiatry 9:245–260
Springer SP, Deutsch G (1985) Left brain, right brain. Freeman, New York
Strauss JS, Carpenter WR Jr (1977) The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia. III. Five year outcome and its predictors. Arch Gen Psychiatry 34:159–163
Tsal Y (1983) Movements of attention across the visual field. J Exp Psychol [Hum Percept] 9:523–530
Van den Bosch RJ, Rozendaal N, Mol JMFA (1987) Symptom correlates of eye tracking dysfunction. Biol Psychiatry 22:919–921
Zahn TP, Carpenter WT Jr (1978) Effects of short-term outcome and clinical improvement on reaction time in acute schizophrenia. J Psychiatr Res 14:59–68
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mackert, A., Flechtner, M. Saccadic reaction times in acute and remitted schizophrenics. Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci 239, 33–38 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01739741
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01739741