ABSTRACT
We studied the features of cognitive functions of attention and decision making in 18 healthy subjects and 15 patients with schizophrenia with the use of pairs of two short visual stimuli (double step). In the group of patients with schizophrenia, we observed a higher number of errors and higher frequency of modified saccadic pattern--two saccades to each stimulus instead of only one saccade to the second stimulus. In these patients, the latency period of the first saccade was shorter, while the latency period of a single saccade to the second stimulus was longer as compared with healthy subjects. The lateral differences in the saccade latency in schizophrenic and healthy subjects are opposite. The data provide an evidence of disorders in the cognitive control and prognostic processes of saccade programming in schizophrenic patients.
