Eye-tracking dysfunction in offspring from the New York High-Risk project: Diagnostic specificity and the role of attention

David R. Rosenberg, John A. Sweeney, Elizabeth Squires-Wheeler, Matcheri S. Keshavan, Barbara A. Cornblatt, L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Scopus citations

Abstract

Eye tracking abnormalities were studied in the offspring of schizophrenic, unipolar depressed and bipolar probands from the New York High-Risk Project to examine their familial specificity. Offspring of schizophrenic and depressed probands both had significant global performance deficits based on spectral purity measurements, but only the offspring of schizophrenic probands had an increased rate of intrusive anticipatory saccades. The greater specificity of high anticipatory saccade rate than global performance impairment suggests that this eye movement abnormality may provide a more specific biological marker of risk for schizophrenia than the global measure of eye tracking performance used in this study. Attention facilitation effectively normalized all performance deficits in the offspring of schizophrenic patients, suggesting that a problem sustaining focused visual attention may contribute to eye tracking deficits observed in the relatives of schizophrenic probands.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)121-130
Number of pages10
JournalPsychiatry research
Volume66
Issue number2-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 7 1997

Keywords

  • Affective disorder
  • Genetics
  • Schizophrenia
  • Smooth pursuit eye tracking
  • Vulnerability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

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