Antisaccade task performance in patients at ultra high risk for developing psychosis

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Schizophrenia patients exhibit deficits in the antisaccade task, which involves inhibiting reflexive eye movements.
• No prior research has examined antisaccade task performance in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate antisaccade task performance in UHR patients.
• To compare UHR patients' performance with recent-onset schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Assessed 35 UHR patients for antisaccade performance, neuropsychological function, and symptomatology.
• Compared UHR patients with 42 schizophrenia patients and 28 healthy controls, matched for age and intelligence.

Main Results:

• UHR patients had a significantly higher antisaccade error rate than healthy controls.
• Schizophrenia patients performed worse than both UHR patients and controls.
• A trend indicated higher baseline antisaccade errors in UHR patients who later transitioned to psychosis.
• Poor spatial working memory correlated with increased antisaccade errors in UHR patients.

Conclusions:

• Abnormal antisaccade task performance is evident in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis.
• Poor antisaccade performance in UHR patients may indicate working memory dysfunction.
• Further research is needed to determine if elevated antisaccade error rates predict psychosis onset.