Interrelationship between cognitive status and antisaccade parameters in patients with schizophrenia

Background. The structures that make up the oculomotor system are inextricably linked with cognitive functions that suffer in schizophrenia, which creates characteristic features in deviations in the characteristics of oculomotor response (hereinafter referred to as OMR). In this regard, it is of interest to study visual coordination in the form of tracking eye movements (saccades), since saccadic disturbances are a frequent occurrence in mental disorders. The search and description of the characteristic signs of OMR in schizophrenia can serve as an accessible neurophysiological informative marker of the patient's condition. Objective. Identification of the features of antisaccade reactions and determination of the relationship between cognitive status and antisaccade parameters in patients with schizophrenia. Tasks. To analyze the parameters of antisaccades in patients with schizophrenia, taking into account age, based on the correlation analysis of the parameters of antisaccades and the results of cognitive tests, to identify the clinical and dynamic characteristics of the current mental state of patients depending on the severity of cognitive impairment in positive and negative symptoms. Materials and Methods. Based on the Department of Biological Therapy of Mentally Ill of National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Neurology named after V.M. Bekhterev of the Ministry of Health of Russia, 76 patients (mean age 30.6 years) with paranoid schizophrenia (F20.0) diagnosed according to ICD-10 in a state of therapeutic remission were examined. Video oculography was used to record OMR parameters, and the Battery of Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) was used to assess cognitive status. Results. An increase in the latent period of saccades by an easily predictable stimulus in the Gap temporal pattern can be considered as a valid predictor of the detection of executive dysfunction. It was found that the efficiency of antisaccade execution in the temporal scheme Step correlated negatively with the speed of information processing and the severity of positive and negative symptoms according to the PANSS scale. Conclusion. The findings and the main provisions in the scientific literature on the biological substrate of cognitive impairments and oculomotor responses allow us to conclude that the efficiency in performing antisaccades characterizes the current state of the patient in terms of the severity of negative symptoms and cognitive impairments.