Changes in Horizontal Saccades with Age

Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that saccadic eye movements are slow and imprecise in infants; however, by age 7, they are close to the adult levels. Saccadic eye movement efficiency peaks in adolescence, and after age 50, peak velocity and accuracy begin to decline due to age-related changes in the brain. Different studies have demonstrated the age effect on the reflexive and antisaccade task performance, e.g., a decrease in latency and peak velocity scores with age. The current study aims to explore age-related changes in saccadic eye movement latency, peak velocity, and accuracy in reflexive and antisaccade tasks in school-age children. Saccadic eye movement targets for antisaccade and reflexive saccade tasks were presented at one spatial position. Eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro Fusion video-oculograph to analyse peak velocity, latency, and accuracy (120 Hz). The results demonstrate a significant age effect only on the peak velocity measurements in the antisaccade task, i.e., a decrease in the peak velocity with age was observed only for the antisaccades directed to the right. No significant age effect on the latency and accuracy measurements in both antisaccade and reflexive saccade tasks was observed. The obtained results demonstrate that there are no age-related effects on the parameters of rightward directed reflexive saccades (latency, peak velocity, and accuracy) and antisaccades (latency and accuracy).