Question by Kate: What is “eye tracking dysfunction”?
I’m taking a summer Psychology course and we’ve now just gotten into Schizophrenia. In one of the explanations, it mentions that there is ongoing research that suggests the connection between people with Schizophrenia, and having this “eye tracking dysfunction.” I can’t find what eye tracking dysfunction means anywhere and there are no explanations in my book. I don’t know if it is physiological or not, which is why I’m asking here. So, what exactly is it? Could you help me, please?

Best answer:

Answer by princeidoc
“eye tracking dysfunction” describes a group of eye problems that relate to aiming of the eyes to a moving target, or moving your eyes to aim at different stationary targets.

there are 2 main types of “eye trackings”:

saccades are “darting” your eyes to a new target. a great example of this is ending one line of a paragraph and “darting” left to find the 1st word of the next line.

smooth pursuits are following a moving target like watching the tennis ball move back & forth during a tennis match.

problems with smooth pursuits & accurate saccades have long been associated with dyslexia & certain psychological problems. how they are associated i think is poorly understood by the medical field, but they are. dyslexics & people with certain psychological problems have difficulty watching a tennis ball (smooth pursuit). their eyes “jerk” to re-find the ball instead of smoothly watching it. and when reading or moving their eyes to find a new stationary target (saccades) they overshoot and have to find their way back, or undershoot.

testing smooth pursuits & saccades are generally part of a full psychological evaluation. if a person has poor smooth pursuits or saccades…while certainly not diagnostic for schizophrenia…would be another piece of information leading to a possible diagnosis & management.

both poor smooth pursuits & poor saccades can be helped as part of “vision therapy”. one can train a person to become more accurate with their pursuits & saccades…

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