Association of Abnormal Eye Gaze Pattern with Magical Ideation during Reality Evaluation in Patients with Schizophrenia. |
Jung Suk Lee, Min Woo Kim, Yeon Ju Hong, Jae Jin Kim |
1Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. jaejkim@yonsei.ac.kr 2Department of Psychiatry, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea. 3Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Gangnam Severance Hospital, Seoul, Korea. |
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Abstract |
OBJECTIVES Magical ideation refers to belief in forms of causation that by conventional standards are invalid, and is considered to be one of prodromal psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between magical ideation and eye gaze pattern in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS Eye gaze data were recorded in 23 patients with schizophrenia and 23 healthy controls while performing the reality evaluation task, in which participants should judge the realness of real or unreal pictures. RESULTS Compared to healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased fixation, saccade and area of interest (AOI) fixation counts, and reduced scanpath length. Magical Ideation Scale score in patients with schizophrenia showed negative correlation with the scanpath length in the real condition and the AOI fixation count in the unreal condition. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia show restricted visual scanning during reality evaluation, and their restricted visual scanning may play an important role in the magical ideation. |
Key Words:
Eye gaze · Magical ideation · Reality evaluation · Schizophrenia · Visual scanning |
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