Eye tracking dysfunction and schizophrenia: an overview with special reference to the genetics of schizophrenia
Authors: Levy D. L.; Holzman P. S.
Source: International Review of Psychiatry, Volume 9, Number 4, 1 December 1997 , pp. 365-372(8)
Publisher: Informa Healthcare
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Abstract:
A high prevalence of eye tracking dysfunction (ETD) among schizophrenic patients and their relatives is one of the most widely replicated findings in experimental psychopathology. Almost 25 years of research have shown the following: (1) ETD occurs in about half of schizophrenics, and is not a function of psychotic state, inattention or neuroleptic drug treatment; (2) ETD involves primarily an impairment of smooth pursuit eye movements, characterized by reduced gain and increased compensatory saccades; (3) ETD also occurs in a substantial proportion of unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenics, including clinically discordant co-twins of schizophrenics, suggesting that ETD is under genetic control; (4) the prevalence of ETD in relatives of schizophrenics is higher than the recurrence risk for schizophrenia. ETD is one of several traits associated with schizophrenia and genetically related to schizophrenia. The use of co-familial traits like ETD, in addition to schizophrenia, increases the power of linkage studies to find a gene(s) for schizophrenia compared with conventional methods of linkage analysis, which use only the presence of the schizophrenic psychosis as the phenotype.Language: English
Document Type: Research article
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