Stable schizophrenia patients learn equally well as age-matched controls and better than elderly controls in two sensorimotor rotary pursuit tasks.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To compare sensorimotor performance and learning in stable schizophrenia patients, healthy age- and sex-matched controls and elderly controls on two variations of the rotary pursuit: circle pursuit (true motor learning) and figure pursuit (motor and sequence learning).

Method

In the circle pursuit, a target circle, rotating with increasing speed along a predictable circular path on the computer screen, must be followed by a cursor controlled by a pen on a writing tablet. In the eight-trial figure pursuit, subjects learn to draw a complex figure by pursuing the target circle that moves along an invisible trajectory between and around several goals. Tasks were administered thrice (day 1, day 2, day 7) to 30 patients with stable schizophrenia (S), 30 healthy age- and

SUBMITTER: De Picker LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4241745 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature