ABSTRACT
Work of Holzman and his co-workers suggested disorders of smooth pursuit eye movement to be associated, not only with the pathological conditions named, but also with a variety of functional psychoses and of central nervous disorders. They interpreted the tracking dysfunction to be inadequate cognitive centering which occurred despite a desire to perform the task. Both Holzman et al. and Shagass et al. reported a lack of success in attempts to improve eye tracking performance through alerting-instructions. Leonhard emphasizes the importance of correct and early diagnosis of the condition, which can readily be misclassified as schizophrenia and treated inappropriately. At present the diagnosis of cycloid psychosis is widely employed within Scandinavia and several continental European countries whereas in many English-speaking countries. The fact that the hebephrenic schizophrenics displayed a much higher microtremor rate than the other patients suggests at any rate the measure could be useful in differentiating schizophrenic subgroups.
