Clinical, Neuropsychological, and Brain Structural Correlates of Smooth-Pursuit Eye Tracking Performance in Chronic Schizophrenia

The relation of smooth-pursuit eye tracking dysfunction to neuropsychological performance, brain structural anomalies, and clinical state was examined in a sample of 61 patients with chronic schizophrenia. No association was found between impaired pursuit oculomotion and measures of chronicity or clinical state. Likewise, no association emerged between eye-tracking integrity and brain structural anomalies. Patients with dysfunctional eye tracking were more likely to have impaired performance on tests that assess frontal lobe functioning. In addition, they had more negative symptoms and a relative absence of positive symptoms. Because negative symptoms are often found among patients with frontal lobe impairment, their association with abnormal eye tracking provides converging support for the hypothesis that the cortical locus of deviant smooth-pursuit eye tracking is in the frontal lobes.