CUE DEPENDENT RIGHT HEMINEGLECT IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - A KINEMATIC ANALYSIS

Objectives-Schizophrenia may result from disturbed attentional process es and/or defective internal cueing. Attention for subsequent action w ithin a cued movement task was therefore studied, testing specific hyp otheses of hemispheric dysfunction and of impaired interhemispheric co mmunication. Method-Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 15 matched controls were either cued or uncued when moving a pen to a target on their right or left side with their right or left hand. Pen tip positi on was sampled at 200 Hz an a WACOM SD420 graphics tablet for subseque nt kinematic analysis, Results-Patients with schizophrenia were slower initiating rightwards movements without a cue. Patients also exhibite d reduced abductive/adductive differences in the shape of their moveme nt trajectories, implying differences in interhemispheric communicatio n, Conclusions-It is speculated that schizophrenia is a form of cue de pendent right hemineglect.