This is a FIRST award proposal. The proposed project examines 6-13 year-old children of schizophrenic parents using smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM). Two critical missing pieces of data in research on the development of schizophrenia are: (a) Whether or not persons who are at increased genetic risk to later develop schizophrenia have abnormal SPEM in childhood, and (b) is abnormal SPEM in childhood associated with the presentation of symptom, behavioral, or poor peer problems. By studying children who are at increased risk to later develop schizophrenia, but who have not yet developed the clinical disorder, it is possible to assess whether SPEM abnormalities occur only in adulthood directly tired to presentation of clinical schizophrenia or whether SPEM abnormalities are predetermined, presenting years prior to onset of the full clinical syndrome (aim # 2 of this proposal). Previous efforts to explore this question have been hampered by a failure to understand SPEM within the confines of normal development. Understanding the normal developmental course of SPEM performance (aim #1 of this proposal) is critical to assessing t- risk/normal differences. It is important to address whether clinical difficulties presented by the at-risk group are associated with the SPEM abnormalities. Specifically, within the at-risk group, are those children who exhibit SPEM abnormalities more likely to show symptom, behavioral, or peer adjustment abnormalities than those at- risk children who have normal SPEM (aim #3 of this proposal). The relationship between SPEM and clinical presentation may be stable across the schoolage years, may change as a result of development, or may vary secondary to environmental or other effects. SPEM testing, behavioral and symptom evaluations, and peer adjustment assessments will be repeated 2 years after entry into the study. This will help differentiate these possibilities (aim #4 of this proposal).
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