title: Development of saccade target selection in infants.
abstract: To investigate the development of the target selection process for saccade generation, saccade latencies toward one of two targets were compared with those toward a target presented alone, under conditions where the timing of fixation stimulus offset was varied. 12 2-mo.-olds (7 boys and 5 girls), 12 3-mo.-olds (6 boys and 6 girls), and 12 5-mo.-olds (8 boys and 4 girls) participated. The latencies were longer when two saccade targets were presented on the left and right sides of the display (Double-target condition) than when one target was presented either on the left or right side of the display (Single-target condition). The difference between the Single and Double-target conditions tended to be larger in 2-mo. old infants than in 5-mo.-old infants when a central fixation target remained on after the onset of peripheral stimuli (Overlap condition). However, there was no difference between the 2-mo.-olds and the 5-mo.-olds when the fixation target was turned off before the peripheral stimuli were presented (Gap condition). The results provided evidence of the maturational development of a target selection process for saccade generation during 2 to 5 mo. of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Showa Women's University, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. masakom@swu.ac.jp
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuzawa
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception