Fixation stability in schizophrenia, bipolar, and control subjects

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 97; no. 2; pp. 119 - 128
• Main Authors: Gooding, Diane C., Grabowski, Jeffrey A., Hendershot, Christian S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 27.12.2000; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar Disorder; Bipolar disorders; Electrooculography; Eye movements; Female; Fixation, Ocular - physiology; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Saccades - physiology; Schizophrenia; Visual fixation; Visual search; Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Eye movements; Visual fixation; Visual search; Mood disorder; Human; Cognition; Experimental study; Pursuit eye movement; Saccadic eye movement; Psychosis; Vision; Information processing; Perception; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/S0165-1781(00)00226-2

A few investigators have suggested that visual fixation abnormalities may serve as an endophenotype of liability for schizophrenia. However, the data are equivocal. Conflicting reports regarding the specificity of fixation deficits to schizophrenia may be attributable to methodological differences. Thirty-four schizophrenia patients, 20 bipolar patients, and 30 non-patient controls were presented targets for central fixation. Fixation was scored in terms of frequency of saccades as well as qualitative ratings. Analysis of variance on the number of saccades produced during fixation revealed that the three groups did not differ. Similarly, we observed that the schizophrenia patients did not differ from either bipolar patients or controls in terms of ratings of fixation quality. It appears that schizophrenia patients are not characterized by poor visual fixation. The findings are discussed in terms of the viability of visual fixation as a marker of schizophrenic diathesis, as well as possible implications for the analysis of schizophrenia patients’ visual search performance.