Smooth pursuit eye tracking and visual fixation in psychosis-prone individuals

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Thomas R. Kwapil, Associate Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Subjects identified by Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation (Per-Mag) scores (n=97), Social Anhedonia (SocAnh) scores (n=45), and Physical Anhedonia (PhysAnh) scores (n=31) as well as normal controls (n=94), underwent psychophysiological and clinical assessment. This is the first published investigation of pursuit system functioning in three groups of questionnaire-identified at-risk individuals. Pursuit during a simple non-monitor tracking task was measured using root-mean-square error (RMSE) scores and pursuit gain scores. Fixation performance was measured in terms of number of saccades away from the central fixation point. The at-risk subjects were more likely to display aberrant smooth pursuit tracking than controls, though there were no significant differences between the at-risk subjects endorsing items relevant to positive-symptom schizotypy and those endorsing items pertaining to negative-symptom schizotypy. The groups did not differ significantly in their visual fixation performance. Participants were also evaluated for the presence of Axis I symptomatology and psychotic-like experiences. Neither the experimental subjects nor the control subjects displayed a significant association between ocular motor performance and psychotic-like experiences. These findings are consistent with prior evidence that pursuit tracking is a trait characteristic, independent of clinical status.

Additional Information

Publication
Language: English
Date: 2002
Keywords
smooth pursuit eye tracking, visual fixation, schizotypy, social anhedonia, perceptual aberration, physical anhedonia, psychotic-like experiences, psychology

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