title: Development of visual motion perception in children of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a follow-up study.
abstract: The "dorsal-stream vulnerability" hypothesis claims that motion-sensitive areas in the dorsal occipito-parietal visual system are vulnerable to genetic and environmental factors which affect brain maturation and development. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that developmental anomalies of directional motion perception can be detected in children of mothers with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Motion and form coherence thresholds were measured in 36 children of mothers with schizophrenia, 28 children of mothers with bipolar disorder, and 30 children with negative family history at 7, 8-9, and 10-11 years of age. These tasks require the detection of direction of coherently moving dots embedded among randomly oscillating dots (motion task) and the detection of tangentially oriented line-segments embedded among randomly oriented segments (form task). Results revealed that the rate of development in the motion task was less pronounced in children of mothers with schizophrenia than that in children of mothers with bipolar disorder and in age-matched controls. The development of form perception was spared. Children of mothers with bipolar disorder showed an intact development in both motion and form perception tasks. These results suggest that the progressive developmental abnormality of motion-sensitive visual areas may be a characteristic feature of schizophrenia-vulnerability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary; Department of Physiology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary. szkeri@phys.szote.u-szeged.hu
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kéri
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Must
authors.forename: Oguz
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kelemen
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benedek
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Janka
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*