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Eye Tracking Dysfunction in Schizophrenia: Characterization and Pathophysiology

2010; Springer Science+Business Media; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/7854_2010_60

1866-3389

Deborah L. Levy, Anne B. Sereno, Diane C. Gooding, Gilllian A. O’Driscoll,

Memory and Neural Mechanisms

Eye tracking dysfunction (ETD) is one of the most widely replicated behavioral deficits in schizophrenia and is over-represented in clinically unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients. Here, we provide an overview of research relevant to the characterization and pathophysiology of this impairment. Deficits are most robust in the maintenance phase of pursuit, particularly during the tracking of predictable target movement. Impairments are also found in pursuit initiation and correlate with performance on tests of motion processing, implicating early sensory processing of motion signals. Taken together, the evidence suggests that ETD involves higher-order structures, including the frontal eye fields, which adjust the gain of the pursuit response to visual and anticipated target movement, as well as early parts of the pursuit pathway, including motion areas (the middle temporal area and the adjacent medial superior temporal area). Broader application of localizing behavioral paradigms in patient and family studies would be advantageous for refining the eye tracking phenotype for genetic studies.