A German version of the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES) was administered to 143 schizophrenic patients, 45 of them being severly chronic and disabled. Seventy-eight alcohol-dependent inpatients and 57 healthy volunteers were tested as control groups. Neurological soft signs (NSS) were rated with convincing agreement. Schizophrenic patients are more impaired on all scales than healthy controls. The chronic, severly disabled schizophrenic patients are more impaired compared with the main group of schizophrenic patients and both control groups. A significant difference between the main group of schizophrenic patients and alcohol-dependent patients was only found for the subscale "Motor Coordination". Compared with healthy controls the alcohol-dependent patients show a higher NES total score. The NES total score was related to the relative width of the third ventricle. Total score and subscales were correlated consistently with the level of cognitive functioning as measured by the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and various neuropsychological tests presumably sensitive to dysfunctions of the prefrontal cortex. The NSS were related to positive as well as to negative symptoms, the correlations with negative symptoms being confined to items of "Cognitive Disorganization". This close association of psychomotor and cognitive dysfunctions may be seen as related to the frequently discussed dysfunctions of the prefrontal cortex or the neurointegrative deficit postulated by Meehl.

Startle-elicited blinks were measured during the presentation of affective slides in order to investigate emotional responsiveness in 24 male healthy subjects and 34 male schizophrenic patients. Although the two groups did not differ with regard to their subjective and autonomic responses to the slide stimuli, there was a significant difference between the groups in their responses to the startle probes. Patients rated low in affective expression showed a linear response pattern comparable to that of normal controls with largest amplitudes during unpleasant slides and smallest during pleasant slides. Patients without apparent deficit in affective expression showed a quadratic relationship with smaller blink amplitudes during both pleasant and unpleasant slides. Diminished affective expression rated on the basis of a clinical interview is not associated with a general attenuation of the blink reflex or of its modulation by exposure to emotional slides. Thus, we found no indication of an impairment in the perception of affective stimuli nor of reduced appreciation of pleasant stimuli (anhedonia) in these patients.

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Smooth-pursuit eye-tracking data of 63 schizophrenic patients and 52 normal controls are presented and compared with data collected on the same subjects 2 years earlier. Despite considerable clinical stabilization of the patients the overall eye-tracking performance did not improve. Intrasubject stability over 2 years was moderate. Eye-tracking impairment was significantly correlated with number of psychomotor soft signs and with number of errors in an antisaccade task. The correlations indicate that impairment of smooth-pursuit eye movements is likely to be a consequence of deficient motor control.