Visual scanning of facial expressions in schizophrenia

The authors previously observed that schizophrenic patients generated fewer fixations of less than or equal to 50.1 ms in response to faces than did i t clinical control group. This study examined whether deficits in short-dur ation eye movements were related to patients' problems in gestalt perceptio n of faces. Faces were presented in upright and inverted orientations to ex amine the effects of distorting facial gestalts on eye movements. Normal su bjects generated move saccades of less than or equal to 50.1 ms to upright than to inverted faces. Patients' saccades of less than or equal to 50.1 ms did not differ between orientations. Patterns of fixations and of saccades >50.1 ms did not differ between groups. The results may indicate deficits in these patients in search strategies that underlie perception of facial g estalts.