EYE TRACKING DYSFUNCTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPONENT EYE-MOVEMENT ABNORMALITIES, DIAGNOSTIC SPECIFICITY, AND THE ROLE OF ATTENTION

To characterize oculomotor components and diagnostic specificity of ey e tracking abnormalities in schizophrenia, we examined a large consecu tively admitted series of psychotic patients and matched controls. The most common abnormality in schizophrenic patients was low gain (slow) pursuit eye movements (47% of cases). Pursuit and saccadic eye moveme nt abnormalities were no more severe in schizophrenic Ss than in those with affective psychoses, except that high rates of catch-up saccades were unique to schizophrenic Ss (17% of cases). These findings indica te that impaired pursuit eye movements are a major cause of eye tracki ng impairments in schizophrenia, that-tracking dysfunctions commonly o ccur in affective psychoses, and that markedly high rates of catch-up saccades during eye tracking may be specific to schizophrenia.