Schizotypy, neuroticism, and saccadic eye movements: New data and meta-analysis

Deficits on saccade tasks, particularly antisaccade performance, have been reliably reported in schizophrenia. However, less evidence is available on saccade performance in relation to schizotypy, a personality constellation harboring risk for schizophrenia. Here, we report a large empirical study of the associations of schizotypy and neuroticism with antisaccade and prosaccade performance (Study I). Additionally, we carried out meta-analyses of the association between schizotypy and antisaccade error rate (Study II). In Study I, N = 526 healthy individuals from the general population aged 18-54 years completed prosaccade and antisaccade tasks as well as the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Schizotypy was significantly associated with increased antisaccade error rate, with the disorganized dimension emerging as strongest predictor (β = .118, p = .007). Neuroticism emerged as a significant predictor for prosaccade gain (β = .103, p = .023) and antisaccade latency (β = .101, p = .025). In Study II, random-effects meta-analyses were performed on the published data and those from Study I. Meta-analyses revealed significant associations (all p ≤ .003) of antisaccade error rate with positive (g = 0.37), negative (g = 0.26), disorganized (g = 0.36) and overall schizotypy (g = 0.37). Overall, the present work replicates the association between antisaccade direction errors and schizotypy. Significant findings from meta-analyses provide further evidence of the antisaccade error rate as a putative schizophrenia spectrum marker.