TEMPORAL STABILITY OF SMOOTH-PURSUIT EYE TRACKING IN FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS

We evaluated the temporal stability of smooth-pursuit eye tracking in 38 schizophrenic, 42 nonschizophrenic psychotic bipolar, depressive, p aranoid psychotic, and schizophreniform), and 49 normal subjects. Purs uit performance was evaluated on two testing occasions separated by ap proximately 9.5 months. Retest reliability coefficients of root mean s quare (RMS) error scores for schizophrenic and normal subjects were .6 8 and .57, respectively. The reliability coefficients of RMS error sco res for the nonschizophrenic psychotic patients ranged from .44 to .51 Lever of psychological functioning was not significantly related to t racking performance, and most patients' pursuit performance remained s table despite changes in medication and clinical status. These results support the hypothesis that eye tracking dysfunction is a trait chara cteristic that can serve as a vulnerability indicator of schizophrenia .