Mechanisms of smooth pursuit eye movements in schizotypy

Evidence of inverted gravity‐driven variation in predictive sensorimotor function

“…during the open loop) both for the gravity‐influenced vertical and the horizontal components moving at a constant speed. This fast timescale is comparable to that previously measured under linear trajectories (Spering & Montagnini, 2011) and notably quicker than the 300 ms or so measured under curved arcs from a larger circle (Ross et al., 2017) or sinusoidal paths (Faiola et al., 2020; Meyhofer et al., 2015). It is also notably faster than motion tracking periods of up to 500 ms which were needed before participants could accurately compensate for a blanked trajectory of an accelerating target (Bennett et al., 2007), though that is notably a different task from tracking performance to identify individual differences.…”

“…This work provides a novel framework for studying sensorimotor prediction which we believe has a lot of potential and must be tested further. It also adds to a growing body of literature which provide encouraging early results in the quest for tools which can provide a diagnostic window into mechanisms of brain function (Faiola et al, 2020;Freedman & Foxe, 2018;Krol & Krol, 2019;Paladini et al, 2019), in our case dynamic prediction which can be an indication of psychotic traits.…”

“…The SPQ was chosen to quantify schizotypy, a set of heterogenous traits found within the healthy population which are related to the positive, negative and disorganised symptoms of schizophrenia but which occur with a lower severity (Raine, 1991). Schizotypy, like schizophrenia, has consistently been shown to generate deficits in visual tracking (Faiola et al., 2020; Meyhofer et al., 2015; Spering et al., 2013). We therefore used the trait measure to split the participants into low and high groups and contrasted tracking performance between them.…”

“…This predictive process can be impaired by deficits in inhibition with neurocognitive consequences (Crapse & Sommer, 2008; Fletcher & Frith, 2009). Thus, visual tracking tasks with continuous measures of performance dynamics provide a test case for contrasting hypotheses about hierarchical mechanisms behind deficits in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders (Adams, Perrinet, & Friston, 2012; Faiola, Meyhöfer, & Ettinger, 2020). Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder, and related traits within a healthy population captured by schizotypy also have a diverse set of associated behaviours which have been categorised by some as positive, negative or disorganised (Raine, 1991).…”

Unity and diversity of metacognition.

“…computer screen (1280 3 1024 pixels, 60 Hz refresh rate) with black background. The task was conducted using Presentation; except for the addition of confidence ratings, the design was identical to that of a previous study of our group (Faiola et al, 2020). Following a UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF METACOGNITION 5 fixation period of variable duration (300-700 ms), motion of a total of 150 white (RGB: 255,255,255) dots was presented for 350 ms, with a velocity of 7°/s.…”