Eye Tracking Dysfunction and Schizophrenia: A Critical Perspective

Eye tracking dysfunction (ETD) has been found in large numbers of schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives. Because of the many replications of the central findings, ETD has been proposed as a useful way of expanding the schizophrenia phenotype in genetic studies. We critically review the literature on ETD with respect to issues of measurement and the search for quantitative indices of ETD; syndrome and familial specificity of ETD for schizophrenia; statistical, interpretive, and methodological considerations in the use of mixture analysis; the association of ETD with clinically and psychometrically defined schizotypy; and the questions of trait stability and medication effects.