Behavioral and Brain Imaging Studies of Saccadic Performance in Schizophrenia

Data are reviewed from a series of saccadic studies demonstrating that schizophrenia subjects have normal performance on some types, and abnormal performance on other types, of tasks. Normal refixation saccade characteristics and BOLD signal change among schizophrenia subjects suggest that basic saccade generating circuitry is functionally intact among these subjects. Schizophrenia patients and their relatives, however, demonstrate difficulty with saccadic inhibition, a function ostensibly mediated by DLPFC circuitry. We review additional evidence for saccadic inhibition being associated with prefrontal circuitry provided by EEG and fMRI data. Minimum norm analysis of EEG data suggests that dipolar activity preceding correct antisaccades occurred preferentially in prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, there is an indication from the fMRI data that prefrontal activity may be increased in normal, but not in schizophrenia, subjects during antisaccade tasks. These data suggest that a research program relying on multiple functional imaging technologies may be helpful for furthering our understanding of schizophrenia's essential neuropathology.