Smooth pursuit eye movements of normal and schizophrenic subjects tracking an unpredictable target

Abstract

An experimental paradigm employed by several workers in the field of schizophrenic eye movements has involved finding sequences of stimuli that induce saccadic smooth pursuit in the eye movements of normal individuals. It is hoped that the identification of such stimuli will lead to clues concerning the etiology or nature of eye tracking dysfunction in schizophrenia. In this study, the pursuit eye movements of normal and schizophrenic subjects tracking an unpredictable target (composed of summed sine waves) were examined. Eye tracking performance was evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively using percent root-mean-square (%RMS) error and pursuit gain scores. Schizophrenics are capable of tracking an unpredictable target. This finding has implications for our understanding of schizophrenic information processing during visual tracking.