Vestibular activation, smooth pursuit tracking, and psychosis

Pursuit tracking and vestibular activation procedures were combined in an investigation to determine if smooth pursuit tracking deficits could be related to abnormalities of visual-vestibular interaction in psychiatric patients. In actively psychotic patients, but not in comparison groups of schizophrenic outpatients with remitted symptomatology or normal controls, a significant failure of visual fixation to suppress caloric nystagmus was related to a higher incidence of disordered tracking during both baseline and postirrigation conditions. Other vestibular irregularities including dysrhythmia and reduced fast phase velocity were observed in these same patients. The results are supportive of a central deficit in visual-vestibular interaction that may contribute to pursuit tracking deficits in psychosis.