Effects of nicotine on leading saccades during smooth pursuit eye movements in smokers and nonsmokers with schizophrenia
Effects of nicotine on leading saccades during smooth pursuit eye movements in smokers and nonsmokers with schizophrenia
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DOI：
10.1038/sj.npp.1300265
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发表时间：
2003-12-01
影响因子：
7.6
通讯作者：
Thaker, GK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Avila, MT;Sherr, JD;Thaker, GK
多项研究表明，精神分裂症患者及其亲缘关系在平滑追踪眼动（SPEM）任务中会产生更多数量的前导眼跳。这种异常可能反映了视觉跟踪过程中皮质和/或小脑区域无法协调扫视和追踪眼球运动。这种现象的药理学尚不清楚。在这里，我们试图复制和扩展 Olincy 等人 (1998) 的研究结果，他们发现尼古丁短暂地减少了 SPEM 期间主要眼跳的数量。共有 27 名精神分裂症受试者（17 名男性；14 名吸烟者）和 25 名健康对照受试者（9 名男性；14 名吸烟者）在接受 1.0 mg 尼古丁鼻喷雾剂后且在无药物条件下完成了眼球追踪任务。结果证实，尼古丁减少了精神分裂症患者视觉跟踪过程中主要眼跳的次数。基线损伤和尼古丁的有益作用并不限于吸烟患者，因为非吸烟患者在不服药的情况下表现出最多数量的主要眼跳，并且在尼古丁给药后表现出最明显的改善。非吸烟患者的改善与既往吸烟史无关。在对照非吸烟者中没有观察到尼古丁的影响。与之前的研究相比，尼古丁似乎可以改善对照吸烟者的表现。总体而言，研究结果支持 nACh 受体在改善眼动追踪表现方面的功能性作用，并且与几位研究人员提出的假设一致，即 nACh 受体系统异常导致许多与精神分裂症相关的神经生理缺陷。
Several studies have shown that schizophrenic patients and their biological relatives generate a greater number of leading saccades during smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) tasks. This abnormality may reflect a failure of cortical and/or cerebellar areas to coordinate saccadic and pursuit eye movements during visual tracking. The pharmacology of this phenomenon is not known. Here, we sought to replicate and extend the findings of Olincy et al (1998), who found that nicotine transiently reduced the number of leading saccades during SPEMs. A total of 27 subjects with schizophrenia ( 17 males; 14 smokers), and 25 healthy comparison subjects ( nine males; 14 smokers) completed an eye-tracking task after receiving a 1.0 mg nasal spray of nicotine and during drug-free conditions. Results confirm that nicotine reduces the number of leading saccadic eye movements during visual tracking in schizophrenic patients. Baseline impairments and the beneficial effects of nicotine were not restricted to patient smokers, as nonsmoker patients exhibited the greatest number of leading saccades in the no drug condition and exhibited the most pronounced improvements after nicotine administration. Improvement in patient nonsmokers was not a function of previous smoking history. No effect of nicotine was observed in control nonsmokers. In contrast to the previous study, nicotine appeared to improve performance in control smokers. Overall, the study results support a functional role of nACh receptors in improving eye-tracking performance, and are consistent with the hypothesis, articulated by several investigators, that nACh receptor system abnormalities are responsible for a number of schizophrenia-related neurophysiological deficits.