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Abstract:
Abstract: Accurate and fast decoding of eye gaze in social
situations is necessary for efficient communication of intent.
Deficits of eye gaze direction perception have been reported widely
in autism and have been linked to impaired "theory of mind."
Moreover, gaze perception is associated with the superior temporal
cortex, which has been reported to be abnormal in schizophrenia
patients. Although it has been reported that schizophrenic patients
show deficits in tasks that tap theory of mind, it is unclear what
processes are defective. In this study, we examined fine
discrimination of gaze direction perception in schizophrenia
patients and controls. The stimuli were photos of eyes directed at
7 different angles. The control stimuli were photos of glass cups
at 5 different levels of fullness. The task consisted of presenting
both stimuli types in 2 conditions of 2 or 4 picture sets, where
the target (eyes straight ahead or glass half full) is selected
from a set of 1 or 3 distractors. Our analysis shows that
schizophrenic patients were less accurate and than controls at
detecting the target in both eye conditions. The also had slower
reaction times. On the control task, although the schizophrenic
patients were slower than controls, they were not significantly
less accurate. These results suggest that eye gaze direction
perception may be impaired in schizophrenia patients and that a
deficit in fine gaze discrimination may contribute to impairment in
theory of mind.
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