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01-04 Visual scanpath comparisons between those people with and without comorbid cannabis abuse: the implications for eye movement research in schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

C Loughland ,
K McCabe ,
S Quinn ,
M Hunter  and
T Lewin
C Loughland
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), New South Wales, Australia The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
K McCabe
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), New South Wales, Australia The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
S Quinn
Affiliation:
The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
M Hunter
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), New South Wales, Australia The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
T Lewin
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), New South Wales, Australia Hunter New England Health, Newcastle, Australia
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Abstract

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Type
Abstracts from ‘Brainwaves’— The Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual Meeting 2006, 6–8 December, Sydney, Australia
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 18 , Issue 6 , December 2006 , pp. 314
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Blackwell Munksgaard

Background:

Cannabis use is associated with substantial social cognition impairment, as are illnesses such as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is also strongly associated with comorbid cannabis use. Studies examining face processing disturbances show that people with schizophrenia display impaired visual scanpath (VS) strategies when viewing face stimuli. No studies to date have examined the impact of cannabis use on VS performance, and whether VS disturbances in schizophrenia are further impaired by comorbid cannabis use. This study examines whether VS disturbances to face stimuli are observed in cannabis users.

Methods:

The sample consisted of 20 subjects with regular cannabis use and 20 healthy controls. Subjects were screened for psychosis (SCID-N/P). IQ was assessed using the NART and neuropsychological functioning using the RBANS. Personality was assessed using the SPQ and the IPDE. VSs were recorded using a ViewPoint (6.0) eye tracker. Recognition accuracy was recorded concurrently.

Results:

Preliminary analysis indicates that the two groups did not differ from each other on age, gender, secondary school completion, IQ or neuropsychologi-cal functioning. However, cannabis users had significantly higher scores than controls on the SPQ items of odd beliefs/magical thinking and odd speech, but did not differ from each other on VS or facial expression recognition accuracy.

Conclusions:

These findings suggest that the social cognition disturbances observed in cannabis users may be associated with social cue and personality disturbances rather than disturbances in face perception and processing. The implications for VS research in schizophrenia will be discussed.