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Exploratory eye movements to pictures in childhood-onset schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
1Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90024, USA. karat004@tc.umn.edu
Insights
Schizophrenic children have intact basic visual attention but struggle with top-down control for self-guided tasks. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children showed shorter fixation durations during detailed analysis.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Understanding visual attention in neurodevelopmental disorders is crucial.
- Schizophrenia and ADHD present distinct challenges in cognitive processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate exploratory eye movements in children with schizophrenia and ADHD compared to neurotypical children.
- To determine how varying question structures affect visual scanning patterns.
Main Methods:
- Assessed eye movements (time viewing regions, fixation duration, fixation distance) in response to thematic pictures.
- Children with schizophrenia, ADHD, and normal controls were presented with questions of differing structure.
Main Results:
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children trended towards shorter fixation durations on complex tasks.
- Schizophrenic children viewed fewer relevant regions and exhibited staring when inferring actions, but not when focusing on specifics.
Conclusions:
- Basic visual attention control appears intact in schizophrenic children.
- Schizophrenic children demonstrate deficits in top-down control of selective attention for self-guided behavior.
Abstract:
We investigated exploratory eye movements to thematic pictures in schizophrenic, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and normal children. For each picture, children were asked three questions varying in amount of structure. We tested if schizophrenic children would stare or scan extensively and if their scan patterns were differentially affected by the question. Time spent viewing relevant and irrelevant regions, fixation duration (an estimate of processing rate), and distance between fixations (an estimate of breadth of attention) were measured. ADHD children showed a trend toward shorter fixations than normals on the question requiring the most detailed analysis. Schizophrenic children looked at fewer relevant, but not more irrelevant, regions than normals. They showed a tendency to stare more when asked to decide what was happening but not when asked to attend to specific regions. Thus, lower levels of visual attention (e.g., basic control of eye movements) were intact in schizophrenic children. In contrast, they had difficulty with top-down control of selective attention in the service of self-guided behavior.