Development of saccadic suppression in children.
We measured saccadic suppression in adolescent children and young adults using spatially curtailed low spatial frequency stimuli. For both groups, sensitivity for color-modulated stimuli was unchanged during saccades. Sensitivity for luminance-modulated stimuli was greatly reduced during saccades in both groups but far more for adolescents than for young adults. Adults' suppression was on average a factor of about 3, whereas that for the adolescent group was closer to a factor of 10. The specificity of the suppression to luminance-modulated stimuli excludes generic explanations such as task difficulty and attention. We suggest that the enhanced suppression in adolescents results from the immaturity of the ocular-motor system at that age.
Bruno
Aurelio
A
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy.
Brambati
Simona Maria
SM
Perani
Daniela
D
Morrone
Maria Concetta
MC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003118:Color Perception; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception; D014792:Visual Acuity