title: Saccades in children.
abstract: Saccades are necessary for optimal vision. Little is known about saccades in children. We recorded saccades using an infrared eye tracker in 39 children, aged 8-19 years. Participants made saccades to visual targets that stepped 10 degrees or 15 degrees horizontally and 5 degrees or 10 degrees vertically at unpredictable time intervals. Saccadic latency decreased significantly with increasing age, while saccadic gain and peak velocity did not vary with age. Saccadic gains and peak velocities in children are similar to reported adult values. This implies maturity of the neural circuits responsible for making saccades accurate and fast. Saccade latency decreases as the brain matures.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. msalman@hsc.mb.ca
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Salman
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eizenman
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lillakas
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Westall
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: To
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dennis
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Steinbach
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014741:Video Recording; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*