Visual exploration of emotion eliciting images by patients with schizophrenia

To examine the relationship between emotional activation and information ga thering in schizophrenia, the eye movements and emotional responses of 20 p atients with schizophrenia and 10 patients without history of psychosis wer e recorded while viewing 30 images varying in pleasantness. Emotionally act ivating pictures were more extensively explored than neutral pictures by bo th groups but especially by schizophrenia patients. Comparison patients exp lored pictures more extensively during the early part of image exposure, wh ereas patients with schizophrenia took longer to engage in informative expl oration. The scan path lengths and the proportions of fixation time spent i n regions of interest did not differ between groups, although persons with schizophrenia had longer fixations and looked at fewer regions of interest in neutral pictures. Emotion reports did not differ between groups. Schizop hrenia patients' results are consistent with the hypothesized normalizing e ffects of emotional activation on the distribution of attention.