EFFECT OF ROTATION ON POSTURAL STEADINESS IN NORMAL AND IN SCHIZOPHRENIC SUBJECTS

Abstract

Vestibular reactivity in schizophrenic patients has been investigated by several experimenters,¹who have in general found that after caloric or rotatory stimulation nystagmus was absent or diminished as compared with the response in normal subjects. Angyal and Blackman,²in a recent and more elaborate study, confirmed this observation on 58 patients and 20 normal subjects. Our purpose in the present study was to determine whether such lesser reactivity in the vestibular apparatus was accompanied by any changes in the muscle tonus as related to postural activity. The effect of rotation on standing steadiness was therefore investigated in normal and in schizophrenic subjects. METHOD AND MATERIAL Subjects. —The subjects included 30 normal persons and 30 healthy male schizophrenic patients. The nonpsychotic, control subjects were drawn from the personnel of the hospital and from students at a nearby university. Their ages ranged from 18 to 36, the average being 22