title: Reading and visual search: a developmental study in normal children.
abstract: Studies dealing with developmental aspects of binocular eye movement behaviour during reading are scarce. In this study we have explored binocular strategies during reading and during visual search tasks in a large population of normal young readers. Binocular eye movements were recorded using an infrared video-oculography system in sixty-nine children (aged 6 to 15) and in a group of 10 adults (aged 24 to 39). The main findings are (i) in both tasks the number of progressive saccades (to the right) and regressive saccades (to the left) decreases with age; (ii) the amplitude of progressive saccades increases with age in the reading task only; (iii) in both tasks, the duration of fixations as well as the total duration of the task decreases with age; (iv) in both tasks, the amplitude of disconjugacy recorded during and after the saccades decreases with age; (v) children are significantly more accurate in reading than in visual search after 10 years of age. Data reported here confirms and expands previous studies on children's reading. The new finding is that younger children show poorer coordination than adults, both while reading and while performing a visual search task. Both reading skills and binocular saccades coordination improve with age and children reach a similar level to adults after the age of 10. This finding is most likely related to the fact that learning mechanisms responsible for saccade yoking develop during childhood until adolescence.
authors.affiliation: e(ye)BRAIN, Ivry-sur-Seine, France. magali.seassau@eye-brain.com
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seassau
authors.forename: Maria-Pia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Bucci
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D012438:Saccades; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
references.citation: Vision Res. 1995 Dec;35(23-24):3255-64
references.pmid: 8560797
references.citation: PLoS One. 2011;6(11):e27105
references.pmid: 22073266
references.citation: Q J Exp Psychol A. 1998 Feb;51(1):135-51
references.pmid: 9532965
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e33458
references.pmid: 22438934
references.citation: C R Acad Sci III. 1992;315(4):159-64
references.pmid: 1450983
references.citation: J Physiol. 1988 Oct;404:157-82
references.pmid: 3253429
references.citation: Vision Res. 2006 Feb;46(4):457-66
references.pmid: 16005488
references.citation: J Exp Child Psychol. 1986 Apr;41(2):211-36
references.pmid: 3701249
references.citation: Brain Lang. 2013 May;125(2):134-45
references.pmid: 22564748
references.citation: Vision Res. 1995 Dec;35(23-24):3217-28
references.pmid: 8560793
references.citation: Brain Cogn. 2008 Dec;68(3):293-308
references.pmid: 18938009
references.citation: Dev Med Child Neurol. 1993 Sep;35(9):777-87
references.pmid: 8354429
references.citation: Vision Res. 2013 Jul 19;87:22-9
references.pmid: 23694682
references.citation: Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013 Jan 21;54(1):620-8
references.pmid: 23249710
references.citation: Dev Neuropsychol. 2001;19(2):191-210
references.pmid: 11530975
references.citation: Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012 Aug 22;53(9):5762-9
references.pmid: 22850417
references.citation: Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2002 Apr;43(4):1040-7
references.pmid: 11923245
references.citation: Vision Res. 1997 Apr;37(8):1049-69
references.pmid: 9196724
references.citation: Vision Res. 2006 Oct;46(22):3898-908
references.pmid: 16879851
references.citation: Vision Res. 2010 Jan;50(2):171-80
references.pmid: 19914273
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2003 Jul;6(7):767-73
references.pmid: 12754516
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 1998 Nov;124(3):372-422
references.pmid: 9849112
references.citation: Cognition. 2007 Aug;104(2):198-230
references.pmid: 16859667
references.citation: Behav Res Methods. 2010 Feb;42(1):188-204
references.pmid: 20160299