Saccadic and smooth-pursuit eye movements in de®cit non-de®cit schizophrenia I. Nkam a , F. Thibaut a , * , P. Denise b , A. Van Der Elst a , L. Se Âgard a , P. Brazo b , J.-F. Me Ânard a , S. The Âry a , I. Halbeck b , P. Delamilleure b , T. Vasse b , O. Etard b , S. Dollfus b , D. Champion a , D. Levillain a , M. Petit a a Unite Âde Recherche mixte, INSERM, EPI 9906, Universite Âde Me Âdecine de Rouen, 76183 Rouen Cedex, France b JE 2014 et Programme Hopitalier de Recherche Clinique, Universite Âde Rouen et Caen, 76183 Rouen Cedex, France Received 5 April 1999; accepted 6 August 1999 Abstract We have analyzed eye movement performances in schizophrenics showing primary negative or de®cit symp and non-de®cit schizophrenics (n  55), and compared them with those of controls (n  34) in order to study th between negative symptoms and eye movement abnormalities. Patients were subtyped into de®cit and non-d using the Schedule for the De®cit Syndrome. Three oculomotor paradigms were used: smooth pursuit, a re¯exive saccade paradigm and an antisaccadic task. The smooth pursuit gain was signi®cantly decreased (and the rate of catch-up saccades increased) in schizophr compared with controls, butno difference was observed between patient groups. In the re¯exive saccade paradigm, no difference was found between controls and patients, except for latency in de®cit patients. In the antisaccade paradigm, the number of errors and the latency of successful antisaccades were signi®cantly increased in schizophrenics as controls. The latency of successful antisaccades in both directions was signi®cantly increased in de®cit patien with non-de®cit patients. The latency of rightward successful antisaccades was signi®cantly increased as com latency of leftward antisaccades in de®cit patients only. However, when patients were classi®ed into negative groups using the PANSS, no difference was found in the antisaccade paradigm. Smooth pursuit impairment does not seem to depend on the primary enduring negative symptoms. In de®cit schizophrenics, the abnormalities observed in the antisaccadic task are consistent with prefrontal d may suggest parietal lobe dysfunction as well. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Antisaccade paradigm; De®cit syndrome; Schizophrenia; Smooth pursuit; Wisconsin Card Sorting Test 1. Introduction Eye tracking dysfunction in schizophrenic patients was ®rst reported by Diefendorf and Dodge (1908) and later by Holzman et al. (1973). The majorityof studiessuggestthatthe eye trackingabnormalities observed in schizophrenia consistin reduced gain during smooth pursuit eye movement(SPEM) and increasednumber of saccades produced during tracking (for review,see Levy etal.,1994).In addition, several reports have Schizophrenia Research 48 (2001) 145±153 0920-9964/01/$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 2 0 - 9 9 6 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 6 5 - 6 www.elsevier.com/locate/schres * Corresponding author. Present address: Unite  de Psychiatrie, CHRU C. Nicolle, 1 rue de Germont, 76031 Rouen Cedex, France. Fax: 133-2-35-71-02-38. E-mail address: Florence.Thibaut@chu-rouen.fr (F. Thibaut).