Response switching in schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects: effects of the inter-response interval

Schizophrenia patients show impaired saccadic response switching, pointing to action control deficits at the level of response selection. Previous studies on healthy subjects suggested that response switch effects might decrease if the prior response is longer ago, reflecting a slow dissipation of the response program persisting from the previous trial. The present study aimed at directly investigating whether response switch effects in schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects depend on the inter-response interval (IRI). Effects of response switching on pro- and antisaccade performance were analyzed in 19 schizophrenia patients and 19 healthy controls at 3 different IRIs (2,500, 3,000, 4,000 ms). Response switch effects of healthy subjects did not vary with the IRI, suggesting that the previous response program persists as long as no contrary response program is activated. In schizophrenia, response switch deficits were replicated at an IRI of 3,000 ms, whereas at IRIs of 2,500 and 4,000 ms, effects of response switching did not significantly differ from healthy subjects. This might suggest that there is a specific IRI range particularly sensitive to response switch deficits in schizophrenia. However, effects of response switching at different IRIs remain to be consolidated.