Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 482, Issue 3, 4 October 2010, Pages 245-249
Neuroscience Letters

Gaze control during face exploration in schizophrenia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2010.07.048Get rights and content

Abstract

Patients with schizophrenia perform worse than controls on various face perception tasks. Studies monitoring eye movements have shown reduced scan paths and a lower number of fixations to relevant facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) than to other parts. We examine whether attentional control, through instructions, modulates visual scanning in schizophrenia. Visual scan paths were monitored in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 controls. Participants started with a “free viewing” task followed by tasks in which they were asked to determine the gender, identify the facial expression, estimate the age, or decide whether the face was known or unknown. Temporal and spatial characteristics of scan paths were compared for each group and task. Consistent with the literature, patients with schizophrenia showed reduced attention to salient facial features in the passive viewing. However, their scan paths did not differ from that of controls when asked to determine the facial expression, the gender, the age or the familiarity of the face. The results are interpreted in terms of attentional control and cognitive flexibility.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all patients and the psychiatrists who gave access to their patients. We thank Richard Revia very much for correcting the English of this manuscript. The study was funded by a Ph.D. grant to the first author by the region Nord-Pas de Calais and the Lille University Hospital and a twin grant between France and Belgium to M. Boucart and K. Verfaillie.

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