Cue dependent right hemineglect in schizophrenia: a kinematic analysis

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Schizophrenia may result from disturbed attentional processes and/or defective internal cueing. Attention for subsequent action within a cued movement task was therefore studied, testing specific hypotheses of hemispheric dysfunction and of impaired interhemispheric communication. METHOD: Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 15 matched controls were either cued or uncued when moving a pen to a target on their right or left side with their right or left hand. Pen tip position was sampled at 200 Hz on a WACOM SD420 graphics tablet for subsequent kinematic analysis. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia were slower initiating rightwards movements without a cue. Patients also exhib..