Confirmatory factor analysis in neurophysiological and neuropsychological dimensions of schizophrenia

This study applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the construct of smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in schizophrenia. Participants were assigned to two groups: Group 1 included 27 probands chosen from families with schizophrenia in first-degree relatives, and Group 2 included 54 schizophrenics who had no families with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. There were no differences in the eye tracking pursuit and the WCST between the sporadic and familial schizophrenics. Gender impacted the catch-up saccades (CUS) and anticipatory saccades (AS) indices of the SPEM, and the conceptual level responses (CLR) index of the WCST. Education impacted the CLR and perseverative errors of the WCST. Although there were no correlation between the SPEM and the WCST, but the two instruments showed good content validity, which might be useful in the subtyping of schizophrenia.