title: Characteristics of open- and closed-loop smooth pursuit responses among obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and nonpsychiatric individuals.
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-state 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109, USA.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Farber
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Clementz
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*