A novel, portable eye tracking system for use in schizophrenia research

Abstract

The paper outlines a methodology to measure the ability of a schizophrenic patient to saccade against a presented stimulus by tracking the patient's electro-oculographic (EOG) activity. The overall goal is to investigate a deficit in this anti-saccade task as a cognitive endophenotype for schizophrenia. A portable system for performing this test and a novel biopotential amplifier are presented, along with a signal processing method and analysis. Results based on control subjects indicate that a mean anti-saccade task performance of above 89% is achievable. A study on 5 schizophrenic patients indicates that anti-saccade task performance drops to a mean value of 45%. A study to be carried out by the Trinity College Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group is currently assessing up to 800 subjects including schizophrenics and their relatives.