Saccadic suppression in schizophrenia

About 40% of schizophrenia patients report discrete visual disturbances which could occur if saccadic suppression, the decrease of visual sensitivity around saccade onset, is impaired. Two mechanisms contribute to saccadic suppression: efference copy processing and backwards masking. Both are report...

Verfasser: Lencer, Rebekka
Meyhöfer, Inga
Triebsch, Janina
Rolfes, Karen
Lappe, Markus
Watson, Tamara
FB/Einrichtung:FB 07: Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2021
Publikation in MIAMI:20.04.2023
Datum der letzten Änderung:20.04.2023
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:Scientific Reports 11 (2021), 13133, 1-10
Schlagwörter:Neuroscience; Psychiatric disorders
Fachgebiet (DDC):610: Medizin und Gesundheit
Lizenz:CC BY 4.0
Sprache:English
Förderung:Finanziert über die DEAL-Vereinbarung mit Wiley 2019-2022.
Förderer: European Union / Projektnummer: 734227
Format:PDF-Dokument
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-00069537911
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: 10.17879/20069679563
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-00069537911
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Onlinezugriff:10.1038_s41598-021-92531-2.pdf

About 40% of schizophrenia patients report discrete visual disturbances which could occur if saccadic suppression, the decrease of visual sensitivity around saccade onset, is impaired. Two mechanisms contribute to saccadic suppression: efference copy processing and backwards masking. Both are reportedly altered in schizophrenia. However, saccadic suppression has not been investigated in schizophrenia. 17 schizophrenia patients and 18 healthy controls performed a saccadic suppression task using a Gabor stimulus with individually adjusted contrast, which was presented within an interval 300 ms around saccade onset. Visual disturbance scores were higher in patients than controls, but saccadic suppression strength and time course were similar in both groups with lower saccadic suppression rates being similarly related to smaller saccade amplitudes. Saccade amplitudes in the saccadic suppression task were reduced in patients, in contrast to unaltered amplitudes during a saccade control task. Notably, smaller saccade amplitudes were related to higher visual disturbances scores in patients. Saccadic suppression performance was unrelated to symptom expression and antipsychotic medication. Unaltered saccadic suppression in patients suggests sufficiently intact efference copy processing and backward masking as required for this task. Instead, visual disturbances in patients may be related to restricted saccadic amplitudes arising from cognitive load while completing a task.