Saccadic impairment in schizophrenia with prominent negative symptoms.

Motor disturbances are frequently reported in schizophrenia, particularly in association with negative symptoms, and may reflect frontostriatal dysfunction. This study investigated the timing of self-paced and reprogrammed saccades in 21 patients with schizophrenia, 11 with and 10 without prominent negative symptoms, as compared with 14 healthy controls. Results indicated that schizophrenia patients with increased negative symptoms scores had increased intraindividual variability in their timing of self-paced and reprogrammed saccades and performed saccades with increased peak velocities. It is possible that increased variability may reflect frontostriatal impairments and increased peak velocity may reflect serotonin changes or prefrontal cortex dysfunction.