Increased Performance Error Rate in Saccadometry with Advanced Age

A recently published clinical saccadometry protocol has been used to evaluate saccadic eye movements during prosaccade (PS) and antisaccade (AS) tasks. This study aims to investigate the impact of advanced age on saccadometry performance. A group aged 70–79 years was recruited from three study sites to compare with a group aged 60–69 years from the previous dataset. The saccadometry data were collected using a head-mounted Video Oculography (VOG) eye-tracking goggle (Interacoustics®, Middelfart, Denmark) with our developed clinical saccadometry protocol. Latency (Lat), velocity (Vel), accuracy (Acc), directional error rate (DER), and overall error rate (OER) were recorded during the PS and AS tests. The Welch’s T-test was employed to compare the group differences in PS and AS performance. The average MoCA in the group aged 70–79 was 26.26 ± 2.41 out of 30. The group aged 70–79 demonstrated slower Vel during PS (t(48.90) = 2.61, p = .01) and had higher DER (t(30.93) = −5.44, p < .01) and OER (t(31.68)= −5.80, p < .01) compared with the group aged 60–69 years. There were no statistical significances in Lat and Acc during PS task, nor Lat, Vel, and Acc during AS task. Advanced age is associated with increased error rates in saccadometry performance. Further research is needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms contributing to elevated error rates, particularly in clinical populations.