Characteristics of open- and closed-loop smooth pursuit responses among obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and nonpsychiatric individuals |
| |
Authors: | ROBERT H. FARBER BRETT A. CLEMENTZ NEAL R. SWERDLOW |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, USA;Department of Psychiatry. University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Twenty obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and comparison samples of 20 schizophrenia and 20 nonpsychiatric individuals were presented with (a) a step-ramp task designed to measure smooth pursuit initiation and (b) a regular ramp task designed to measure steady-stale tracking performance. Obsessive-compulsive disorder and non-psychiatric individuals had statistically similar pursuit reaction time and average eye accelerations during the open-loop interval. They also had similar closed-loop performance. Schizophrenia patients, however, had delayed pursuit reaction times and reduced eye acceleration during the last 60 ms of the open-loop interval. These findings suggest that brain regions supporting smooth pursuit performance are unimpaired among obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. Furthermore, the deficits found in the schizophrenia patients replicate and extend the results of previous smooth pursuit studies. |
| |
Keywords: | Smooth pursuit Obsessive-compulsive disorder Saccades |
|
|