title: Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease produced shorter outgoing saccades when reading sentences.
abstract: In the present work we analyzed forward saccades of thirty five elderly subjects (Controls) and of thirty five mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) during reading regular and high-predictable sentences. While they read, their eye movements were recorded. The pattern of forward saccade amplitudes as a function of word predictability was clearly longer in Controls. Our results suggest that Controls might use stored information of words for enhancing their reading performance. Further, cloze predictability increased outgoing saccades amplitudes, as this increase stronger in high-predictable sentences. Quite the contrary, patients with mild AD evidenced reduced forward saccades even at early stages of the disease. This reduction might reveal impairments in brain areas such as those corresponding to working memory, memory retrieval, and semantic memory functions that are already present at early stages of AD. Our findings might be relevant for expanding the options for the early detection and monitoring of in the early stages of AD. Furthermore, eye movements during reading could provide a new tool for measuring a drug's impact on patient's behavior.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: gerardo.fernandez@uns.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schumacher
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.affiliation: Clínica Privada Bahiense, Universidad Del Salvador, Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orozco
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Osvaldo
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Agamennoni
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D012438:Saccades; D012660:Semantics
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cloze predictability; Eye movements; Outgoing saccade amplitude; Reading