Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:54:36.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Do antisaccade deficits in schizophrenia provide evidence of a specific inhibitory function?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2006

GARY DONOHOE
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, & Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
RICHARD REILLY
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, and Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, St. Vincent's Hospital Fairview, Dublin, Ireland
SARAH CLARKE
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, & Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
STEPHEN MEREDITH
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, and Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, St. Vincent's Hospital Fairview, Dublin, Ireland
BARRY GREEN
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, and Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, St. Vincent's Hospital Fairview, Dublin, Ireland
DEREK MORRIS
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, & Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
MICHAEL GILL
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, & Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
AIDEN CORVIN
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, & Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
HUGH GARAVAN
Affiliation:
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
IAN H. ROBERTSON
Affiliation:
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

Background: Despite its inhibitory control requirements, antisaccade deficits have been consistently associated with working memory impairments in schizophrenia. We investigated whether variance in antisaccade performance could be better accounted for in terms of a specific inhibitory function. Method: We assessed 48 clinically stable out-patients with schizophrenia on an antisaccade task, as well as on measures of spatial and verbal working memory, sustained selective attention, and a simple motoric go/no-go measure of response inhibition. Results: In a stepwise multiple regression analysis, go/no-go task performance accounted for a considerably greater percentage of variance in antisaccade performance (25.3%) than either working memory (8.4%) or sustained selective attention task (9.1%). Discussion: We conclude that antisaccade deficits in schizophrenia appear to be better understood in terms of a specific deficit of inhibitory control than in terms of more general difficulties with context maintenance or goal neglect. (JINS, 2006, 12, 901–906.)

Type
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barton, J.J., Raoof, M., Jameel, O., & Manoach, D.S. (2006). Task-switching with antisaccades versus no-go trials: A comparison of inter-trial effects. Experimental Brain Research, 172, 1149.Google Scholar
Broerse, A., Holthausen, E.A., van den Bosch, R.J., & den Boer, J.A. (2001). Does frontal normality exist in schizophrenia? A saccadic eye movement study. Psychiatry Research, 103, 167178.Google Scholar
Brownstein, J., Krastoshevsky, O., McCollum, C., Kundamal, S., Matthysse, S., Holzman, P.S., Mendell, N.R., & Levy, D.L. (2003). Antisaccade performance is abnormal in schizophrenia patients but not in their biological relatives. Schizophrenia Research, 63, 1325.Google Scholar
Burgess, P.W. (1997). Theory and methodology in executive function research. In P. Rabbitt (Ed.), Methodology of Frontal and Executive function, pp. 81116. Psychology Press, East Sussex.
Calkins, M.E., Curtis, C.E., Iacono, W.G., & Grove, W.M. (2004). Antisaccade performance is impaired in medically and psychiatrically healthy biological relatives of schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia Research, 71, 167178.Google Scholar
Cohen, J.D. & Servan-Schreiber, D. (1992). Context, cortex, and dopamine: A connectionist approach to behavior and biology in schizophrenia. Psychological Review, 99, 4577.Google Scholar
Donohoe, G., Corvin, A., & Robertson, I.H. (2006). Evidence that specific executive functions predict symptom variance among schizophrenia patients with a predominantly negative symptom profile. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 20, 1332.Google Scholar
Duncan, J. (1995). Attention, Intelligence and the frontal lobes. In M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences, pp. 721733. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Freedman, R., Adler, L.E., & Leonard, S. (1999). Alternative phenotypes for the complex genetics of schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 45, 551558.Google Scholar
Garavan, H., Ross, T.J., & Stein, E.A. (1999). Right hemispheric dominance of inhibitory control: an event-related functional MRI study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U.S.A, 96, 83018306.Google Scholar
Gooding, D.C. & Tallent, K.A. (2001). The association between antisaccade task and working memory task performance in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 189, 816.Google Scholar
Gordon, M. (1996). Gordon Diagnostic System III. DeWitt, NY: Gordon Diagnostic Systems.
Hester, R., Murphy, K., & Garavan, H. (2004). Beyond common resources: the cortical basis for resolving task interference. Neuroimage, 23, 202212.Google Scholar
Hutton, S.B., Huddy, V., Barnes, T.R., Robbins, T.W., Crawford, T.J., Kennard, C., & Joyce, E.M. (2004). The relationship between antisaccades, smooth pursuit, and executive dysfunction in first-episode schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 56, 553559.Google Scholar
Malone, S.M. & Iacono, W.G. (2002). Error rate on the antisaccade task: heritability and developmental change in performance among preadolescent and late-adolescent female twin youth. Psychophysiology, 39, 664673.Google Scholar
Maruff, P., Danckert, J., Pantelis, C., & Currie, J. (1998). Saccadic and attentional abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 28, 10911100.Google Scholar
McDowell, J.E., Myles-Worsley, M., Coon, H., Byerley, W., & Clementz, B.A. (1999). Measuring liability for schizophrenia using optimized antisaccade stimulus parameters. Psychophysiology, 36, 138141.Google Scholar
McDowell, J.E. & Clementz, B.A. (2001). Behavioral and brain imaging studies of saccadic performance in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 522.Google Scholar
Nieman, D.H., Bour, L.J., Linszen, D.H., Goede, J., Koelman, J.H., Gersons, B.P., & Ongerboer de Visser, B.W. (2000). Neuropsychological and clinical correlates of antisaccade task performance in schizophrenia. Neurology, 54, 866871.Google Scholar
Nieuwenhuis, S., Broerse, A., Nielen, M.M., & de Jong, R. (2004). A goal activation approach to the study of executive function: an application to antisaccade tasks. Brain and Cognition, 56, 198214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeder, C., Newton, E., Frangou, S., & Wykes, T. (2004). Which executive skills should we target to affect social functioning and symptom change? A study of a cognitive remediation therapy program. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30, 87100.Google Scholar
Reuter, B. & Kathmann, N. (2004). Using saccade tasks as a tool to analyze executive dysfunctions in schizophrenia. Acta Psychologica (Amsterdam), 115, 255269.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.J., Hager, L.D., & Heron, C. (1994). Prefrontal Cognitive Processes—Working Memory and Inhibition in the Antisaccade Task. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 123, 374393.Google Scholar
Stefanis, N.C., van Os, J., Avramopoulos, D., Smyrnis, N., Evdokimidis, I., Hantoumi, I., & Stefanis, C.N. (2004). Variation in catechol-o-methyltransferase val158 met genotype associated with schizotypy but not cognition: A population study in 543 young men. Biological Psychiatry, 56, 510515Google Scholar