Features of oculomotor activity (eye movement) in patients with schizophrenia in recognizing essential signs using the example of the "Exclusion of the 4th superfluous" technique

Abstract

The research is devoted to the study of the specifics of oculomotor activity of patients with schizophrenia when solving the cognitive task of searching for common (similar) signs in 4 stimulus images and, on this basis, the exclusion of 1 superfluous object on the cards of the "Exclusion of the 4th superfluous" technique. Oculomotor activity is a reliable biomarker of both conscious and unconscious cognitive processes, and eye movement patterns serve as a quantitative (objective) characteristic of the process of perception, attention and thinking in real time. When solving cognitive tasks, the subject of study was the mental processes of patients with schizophrenia: comparison, classification, generalization, abstraction, which were revealed in the responses of patients in the "Exclusion of the fourth superfluous" technique. The respondents' answers were analyzed depending on the level of generalization: by categorical and functional criteria, by specific situational criteria, and latent criteria. To assess the characteristics of oculomotor activity, the AI tracker method was used using a hardware and software complex for contactless registration of human oculomotor activity. To assess the characteristics of mental activity, the “Exclusion of the fourth superfluous" technique was used. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate difficulties in the recognition process, there is an emphasis on individual parts of the image, as well as: chaotic movements of the gaze between objects and their details. This indicates the need for a longer time period for image recognition, as well as difficulties in analyzing and identifying common essential features of objects (images), as a result of which schizophrenia patients carry out mental generalization operations based on a variety of, more often insignificant and latent signs, which is reflected in making the "wrong" decision. The study of eye movement during the solution of such mental tasks has shown that the characteristics of the gaze during the search for common features reflect the mental acts of comparison and generalization of essential features and can provide objective information about the difficulties and violations of the produced. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the features of oculomotor activity in patients with schizophrenia are closely related to disorders of cognitive processing of visual information at early levels of the thought process. Eye movements in solving cognitive tasks accompany the mental process of searching and selecting significant features from the general background of diverse visual information and reflect the difficulties of its selection.