Slow Negative Potentials Associated with Preparation Period of Memory-Guided Saccades and Antisaccades in Healthy Individuals and Subjects at Clinical High Risk for Schizophrenia

The concept of clinical high risk (CHR) for schizophrenia implies the possibility of identifying a potential predisposition to future schizophrenia manifestation. An important goal of biological psychiatry is conducting research aimed at understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms of this condition. In this study, saccade characteristics of patients at CHR for schizophrenia (n = 15) and healthy participants (n = 15), as well as parameters of their slow negative potentials in the one-second interval preceding the signal to perform a saccade in a “memory-guided saccades/antisaccades” paradigm were analyzed. 12 participants from the CHR group also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for subsequent comparison with the control group selected from the laboratory database. Saccade latencies and error rates were higher in the CHR group. There were also found lateral differences in CHR, but not in the control group. However, no between-group differences were observed in studied electrophysiological and MRI parameters. The obtained results may be interpreted as indirect signs of impairments in executive control, interhemispheric asymmetry and connectivity in the CHR group, although further studies are required to determine the possibility of using slow negative potentials parameters as clinical markers.