Eye-tracking disturbance and eeg: A review and comparison of physiologic markers for schizophrenia and epilepsy

The contributions of smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) abnormalities to the understanding of schizophrenia are compared with the contribution of electroencephalogram (EEG) abnormalities to the understanding of epilepsy. SPEM abnormalities may support the diagnosis of schizophrenia just as interictal EEG abnormalities are supportive of, but not pathognomonic for, the diagnosis of epilepsy. SPEM abnormalities may identify homogeneous groups of schizophrenics, just as EEG abnormalities are used to define homogeneous groups of epileptics. As a putative genetic marker, SPEM may clarify the pattern of genetic transmission of schizophrenia, just as the EEG has clarified the inheritance of certain kinds of genetic epilepsy. Both physiologic markers may play critical roles in probing the molecular genetics of each disorder by defining biologically homogeneous groups of patients and identifying asymptomatic carriers of pathogenic genes.