Dataset Information

Failures in top-down control in schizophrenia revealed by patterns of saccadic eye movements.

ABSTRACT: Successful execution of many behavioral goals relies on well-organized patterns of saccadic eye movements, and in complex tasks, these patterns can reveal the component processes underlying task performance. The present study examined the pattern of eye movements in a visual search task to provide evidence of attentional control impairments in people with schizophrenia (PSZ). We tested PSZ(N = 38) and nonpsychiatric control subjects (NCS, N = 35) in a task that was designed to stress top-down control by pitting task goals against bottom-up salience. Participants searched for either a low-contrast (nonsalient) or a high-contrast (salient) target among low- and high-contrast distractors. By examining fixations of the low- and high-contrast items, we evaluated the ability of PSZ and NCS to focus on low-salience targets and filter out high-salience distractors (or vice versa). When participants searched for a salient target, both groups successfully focused on relevant, high-contrast stimuli and filtered out target-mismatched, low-contrast stimuli. However, when searching for a nonsalient target, PSZ were impaired at efficiently suppressing high-contrast (salient) distractors. Specifically, PSZ were more likely than NCS to fixate and revisit salient distractors, and they dwelled on these items longer than did NCS. The results provide direct evidence that PSZ are impaired in their ability to utilize top-down goals to overcome the prepotent tendency to focus attention on irrelevant but highly salient information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Bansal S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6640840 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Failures in top-down control in schizophrenia revealed by patterns of saccadic eye movements.

Bansal Sonia S Robinson Benjamin M BM Leonard Carly J CJ Hahn Britta B Luck Steven J SJ Gold James M JM

Journal of abnormal psychology 20190613 5

Successful execution of many behavioral goals relies on well-organized patterns of saccadic eye movements, and in complex tasks, these patterns can reveal the component processes underlying task performance. The present study examined the pattern of eye movements in a visual search task to provide evidence of attentional control impairments in people with schizophrenia (PSZ). We tested PSZ(<i>N</i> = 38) and nonpsychiatric control subjects (NCS, <i>N</i> = 35) in a task that was designed to stre ...[more]

PMID: 31192637

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Project description:BackgroundMild cognitive impairment (MCI) may occur due to several forms of neurodegenerative diseases and non-degenerative conditions and is associated with cognitive impairment that does not affect everyday activities. For a timely diagnosis of MCI to prevent progression to dementia, a screening tool of fast, low-cost and easy access is needed. Recent research on eye movement hints it a potential application for the MCI screening. However, the precise extent of cognitive function decline and eye-movement control alterations in patients with MCI is still unclear.ObjectiveThis study examined executive control deficits and saccade behavioral changes in patients with MCI using comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and interleaved saccade paradigms.MethodsPatients with MCI (n = 79) and age-matched cognitively healthy controls (HC) (n = 170) completed four saccadic eye-movement paradigms: prosaccade (PS)/antisaccade (AS), Go/No-go, and a battery of neuropsychological tests.ResultsThe findings revealed significantly longer latency in patients with MCI than in HC during the PS task. Additionally, patients with MCI had a lower proportion of correct responses and a marked increase in inhibition errors for both PS/AS and Go/No-go tasks. Furthermore, when patients with MCI made errors, they failed to self-correct many of these inhibition errors. In addition to the increase in inhibition errors and uncorrected inhibition errors, patients with MCI demonstrated a trend toward increased correction latencies. We also showed a relationship between neuropsychological scores and correct and error saccade responses.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that, similar to patients with Alzheimer's dementia (AD), patients with MCI generate a high proportion of erroneous saccades toward the prepotent target and fail to self-correct many of these errors, which is consistent with an impairment of inhibitory control and error monitoring.SignificanceThe interleaved PS/AS and Go/No-go paradigms are sensitive and objective at detecting subtle cognitive deficits and saccade changes in MCI, indicating that these saccadic eye movement paradigms have clinical potential as a screening tool for MCI.

Dataset Information

Failures in top-down control in schizophrenia revealed by patterns of saccadic eye movements.

Publications

Failures in top-down control in schizophrenia revealed by patterns of saccadic eye movements.

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