Fine-scale eye-movement differences in psychosis and their contribution to abnormal vision

项目摘要/摘要 精神分裂症(SZ)的眼球运动异常已经被记录了100多年，但它仍然存在 不知道细微尺度的眼球运动在这一人群中是否有所不同。这是不幸的，因为神经 眼球运动控制的基础结构有很好的记录，这意味着群体差异可能会揭示 关于潜在疾病的病理生理学。此外，建立细微尺度的眼动差异可能会在 原理提供了一个明显的生物行为标记物，该标记物又可用于鉴别诊断或 临床预测。此外，精细的眼球运动有助于日常活动，如识别 远距离的面部表情、阅读和辨别细微的空间刺激。因此，可以想象， 异常的微眼运动可能与这些功能的损害有关，甚至是因果关系。 精神病患者的视觉功能。因此，本提案中描述的研究的一个主要目标是确定 细微的眼球运动在精神病患者中确实有所不同(目标1)。这些差异将是 在精神障碍患者和配对的健康成年人中，在稳定的注视和在 存在复杂的中心凹刺激。与之前所有精神病研究可能不同的是，我们将使用高- 高精度数字双浦肯野图像眼部跟踪器(1弧分分辨率)，头戴稳定头盔，可最大限度地减少 头部轻微移动，在整个数据收集过程中频繁重新校准。此外，定制的系统 对于凝视应急显示控制，将能够实施最先进的校准程序， 有效地将视线定位误差降低到5角分以下。由于视力和阅读能力 通常在精神病患者中受损，甚至可能预示着未来的精神障碍，我们将尝试 通过探测这些相同过程的任务产生组差异。此外，要建立一个参考 良好眼球运动行为的基线，并考虑到迄今未被注意到的注视稳定性问题，我们将 在没有主动任务的稳定注视过程中评估细微的眼动差异。除了评估 微眼球运动差异是否是精神病的特征，我们也将评估它们与视觉的关系 知觉缺陷(目标2)。特别是，我们将探索微扫视特征之间的相关性 以及视觉敏锐度和阅读障碍的程度。我们还将考虑是否有更高比率的试验 与没有微眼跳的试验相比，微眼跳与阅读障碍或视力受损有关 运动，以及视网膜上的图像稳定化(这消除了微眼跳的好处) 与患者相比，对照组的视力下降更严重。这些发现将使我们了解眼球运动是如何 精神病的差异与微观上的知觉有关，这反过来又可以提出新的治疗方法。 或改善视力和阅读不良的干预措施。

Project summary/abstract Eye movement abnormalities in schizophrenia (SZ) have been documented for over 100 years, yet it remains unknown whether fine-scale eye movements differ in this population. This is unfortunate because the neural structures underlying oculomotor control are well-documented, implying that group differences could shed light on the underlying illness pathophysiology. Moreover, establishing fine-scale eye movement differences could in principle provide a distinguishing biobehavioral marker, which in turn could be used for differential diagnosis or clinical prediction. Additionally, fine-scale eye movements contribute to everyday activities, such as recognizing facial expressions at a distance, reading, and discriminating fine spatial stimuli. Therefore, it is conceivable that abnormal micro- eye movements could be associated with—and even causally related to—impairments of these visual functions in psychosis. Thus, a major goal of the research described in this proposal is to establish that fine-scale eye movements do indeed differ among those with psychosis (Aim 1). These differences will be assessed in people with a psychotic disorder and in well-matched healthy adults during steady fixation and in the presence of complex foveal stimuli. In contrast to possibly all prior psychosis studies, we will use a high- precision digital Dual Purkinje Image Eye-Tracker (1 arcmin resolution) with a head-stabilizing helmet to minimize small head motions, and frequent re-calibrations throughout data collection. Additionally, a custom-made system for gaze contingent display control, will enable the implementation of a state-of-the-art calibration procedure, which effectively reduces the gaze localization error to less than 5 arcmin. Since visual acuity and reading are often impaired among psychosis patients and may even portend a future psychotic disorder, we will attempt to generate group differences with tasks that probe these same processes. Moreover, to establish a reference baseline for fine oculomotor behavior and to consider hitherto unnoticed problems in fixational stability, we will assess small eye movement differences during steady fixation without an active task. Aside from assessing whether micro- eye movement differences characterize psychosis, we will also assess their relationship to visual perceptual deficits (Aim 2). In particular, we will probe for correlations between microsaccade characteristics and the magnitude of visual acuity and reading deficits. We will also consider whether trials with a higher rate of microsaccades are related to impaired reading or impaired visual acuity compared to trials without such eye movements, and whether image stabilization on the retina (which removes the benefits of microsaccades) worsens acuity more for controls than for patients. Findings will inform our understanding of how eye movement differences in psychosis are related to perception at the micro-scale, which in turn can suggest novel treatments or interventions for improving poor visual acuity and reading.