Assessment of Mental Imagery of Movement in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia patients often present with neurological signs such as left/right confusion, impaired coordination of movements, and motor abnormalities may occur secondary to antipsychotic medications. Neuropsychological tests identify various dysfunctions, such as difficulty in focusing attention, difficulty in abstract thinking or difficulty in changing the response frame, while Neurophysiological tests show slowing down of reaction time, problems with eye tracking, etc. There are no studies in the international literature dealing with the investigation of mental imagery of movement in Greek patients with schizophrenia. Also, the position that patients with schizophrenia – regardless of their symptom profile, age, sex, and chronicity of the disease – have a permanent difficulty in creating and manipulating an internal model of their movement prediction has not been substantiated enough to date.