title: Excessive checking behavior during an image comparison task in schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with schizophrenia display significant working memory and executive deficits. In patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), several studies suggest that working memory dysfunction may be one of the causes of compulsive checking behaviors. Hence, this study aimed at assessing whether patients with schizophrenia were impaired on an image comparison task used to measure checking behaviors, and whether the origin and profile of impairment on this task was different between schizophrenia and OCD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eye movement recordings were used to assess the checking behavior of 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 control participants who had to decide whether two images were different or identical. The verbal and visuo-spatial components of participants' working memory were measured using the reading span and backward location span tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls, patients with schizophrenia had reduced working memory spans and showed excessive checking behavior when comparing the two images. However, the intensity of their checking behavior was not significantly related to their working memory deficits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Several recent studies demonstrated that the excessive checking behaviors displayed by patients with OCD were related to working memory dysfunction. The absence of a relationship between the excessive checking behavior of patients with schizophrenia and their working memory deficits suggests that checking behaviors do not have the same origin in the two disorders.
authors.affiliation: Unité de recherche clinique intersectorielle en psychiatrie à vocation régionale Pierre-Deniker, centre hospitalier Henri-Laborit, Poitiers, France; Inserm UMR S1084, laboratoire de neurosciences expérimentales et cliniques, université de Poitiers, pôle biologie-santé, Poitiers, France; CIC-P Inserm U 802, université de médecine et de pharmacie de Poitiers, centre hospitalier universitaire de Poitiers, Poitiers, France; Groupement de recherche CNRS GDR 3557. Electronic address: nemat.jaafari@ch-poitiers.fr.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jaafari
authors.affiliation: Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage, CNRS UMR 7295 - université de Poitiers - Université François-Rabelais-de-Tours, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chopin
authors.affiliation: Unité de recherche clinique intersectorielle en psychiatrie à vocation régionale Pierre-Deniker, centre hospitalier Henri-Laborit, Poitiers, France; Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage, CNRS UMR 7295 - université de Poitiers - Université François-Rabelais-de-Tours, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: Unité de recherche clinique intersectorielle en psychiatrie à vocation régionale Pierre-Deniker, centre hospitalier Henri-Laborit, Poitiers, France; Inserm UMR S1084, laboratoire de neurosciences expérimentales et cliniques, université de Poitiers, pôle biologie-santé, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: J-Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Rotgé
authors.affiliation: Unité de recherche clinique intersectorielle en psychiatrie à vocation régionale Pierre-Deniker, centre hospitalier Henri-Laborit, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lafay
authors.affiliation: Unité de recherche clinique intersectorielle en psychiatrie à vocation régionale Pierre-Deniker, centre hospitalier Henri-Laborit, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hammi
authors.affiliation: Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage, CNRS UMR 7295 - université de Poitiers - Université François-Rabelais-de-Tours, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rigalleau
authors.affiliation: Service hospitalo-universitaire de psychiatrie adulte, centre hospitalier Guillaume-Régnier, Rennes, France; Groupement de recherche CNRS GDR 3557.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Millet
authors.affiliation: Inserm U894, laboratoire de physiopathologie des maladies psychiatriques, Paris, France; Groupement de recherche CNRS GDR 3557.
authors.forename: M-O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.affiliation: Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage, CNRS UMR 7295 - université de Poitiers - Université François-Rabelais-de-Tours, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vibert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Checking behavior; Executive functions; Eye-tracking; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Schizophrenia; Working memory