Visual exploration and action processing in schizophrenia

Visual scanning is widely reported to be abnormal in schizophrenia. The majority of eye movement studies in schizophrenic patients have used pictures of a face in isolation in free viewings. This study was designed to examine whether attentional control, through instructions, modulates the visuomotor behaviour in schizophrenia with pictures presenting a face accompanied by its body, and to investigate the ability of schizophrenic patients to recognise others' actions.

Visual scan paths were monitored in 26 schizophrenic patients and 26 controls. Participants performed three tasks in which they were asked either to look at the picture in any way they liked, to determine the character's gender, or to recognise the action that the character was making with an object.

Patients explored less the pictures than controls in the free viewing. Their scan paths did not differ from that of controls in the active viewings, though patients tended to "avoid" looking at the character's face in the action recognition task.

The results show that patients are able to normalise their pattern of exploration as a function of task demands. The results are discussed in relation to attentional control, cognitive flexibility, dopamine, and processing of context information.