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Hemptinne C, Deravet N, Orban de Xivry JJ, Lefèvre P, Yüksel D. Influence of prior and visual information on eye movements in amblyopic children. J Comput Neurosci 2020; 49:333-343. [PMID: 32901334 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-020-00764-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2020] [Revised: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
This study analyzed the characteristics of pursuit and assessed the influence of prior and visual information on eye velocity and saccades in amblyopic and control children, in comparison to adults. Eye movements of 41 children (21 amblyopes and 20 controls) were compared to eye movements of 55 adults (18 amblyopes and 37 controls). Participants were asked to pursue a target moving at a constant velocity. The target was either a 'standard' target, with a uniform color intensity, or a 'noisy' target, with blurry edges, to mimic the blurriness of an amblyopic eye. Analysis of pursuit patterns showed that the onset was delayed, and the gain was decreased in control children with a noisy target in comparison to amblyopic or control children with a standard target. Furthermore, a significant effect of prior and visual information on pursuit velocity and saccades was found across all participants. Moreover, the modulation of the effect of visual information on the pursuit velocity by group, that is amblyopes or controls with a standard target, and controls with a noisy target, was more limited in children. In other words, the effect of visual information was higher in control adults with a standard target compared to control children with the same target. However, in the case of a blurry target, either in control participants with a noisy target or in amblyopic participants with a standard target, the effect of visual information was larger in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Coralie Hemptinne
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium. .,Ophthalmology Department, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Nicolas Deravet
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium.,Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics, and Applied Mathematics, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- Department of Movement Sciences, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Leuven Brain Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Philippe Lefèvre
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium.,Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics, and Applied Mathematics, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Demet Yüksel
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, La-Neuve, Belgium.,Ophthalmology Department, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium
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2
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Lukasova K, Nucci MP, Neto RMDA, Vieira G, Sato JR, Amaro E. Predictive saccades in children and adults: A combined fMRI and eye tracking study. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0196000. [PMID: 29718927 PMCID: PMC5931500 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2017] [Accepted: 04/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Saccades were assessed in 21 adults (age 24 years, SD = 4) and 15 children (age 11 years, SD = 1), using combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye-tracking. Subjects visually tracked a point on a horizontal line in four conditions: time and position predictable task (PRED), position predictable (pPRED), time predictable (tPRED) and visually guided saccades (SAC). Both groups in the PRED but not in pPRED, tPRED and SAC produced predictive saccades with latency below 80 ms. In task versus group comparisons, children's showed less efficient learning compared to adults for predictive saccades (adults = 48%, children = 34%, p = 0.05). In adults brain activation was found in the frontal and occipital regions in the PRED, in the intraparietal sulcus in pPRED and in the frontal eye field, posterior intraparietal sulcus and medial regions in the tPRED task. Group-task interaction was found in the supplementary eye field and visual cortex in the PRED task, and the frontal cortex including the right frontal eye field and left frontal pole, in the pPRED condition. These results indicate that, the basic visuomotor circuitry is present in both adults and children, but fine-tuning of the activation according to the task temporal and spatial demand mature late in child development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katerina Lukasova
- LIM-44, NIF - Neuroimagem Funcional, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
- Center of Mathematics, Computation and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil
- * E-mail:
| | - Mariana P. Nucci
- LIM-44, NIF - Neuroimagem Funcional, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Gilson Vieira
- LIM-44, NIF - Neuroimagem Funcional, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
- Inter-institutional Grad Program on Bioinformatics, IME-USP, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
| | - João R. Sato
- Center of Mathematics, Computation and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Edson Amaro
- LIM-44, NIF - Neuroimagem Funcional, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
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Rider AT, Coutrot A, Pellicano E, Dakin SC, Mareschal I. Semantic content outweighs low-level saliency in determining children's and adults' fixation of movies. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 166:293-309. [PMID: 28972928 PMCID: PMC5710995 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2016] [Revised: 08/21/2017] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
To make sense of the visual world, we need to move our eyes to focus regions of interest on the high-resolution fovea. Eye movements, therefore, give us a way to infer mechanisms of visual processing and attention allocation. Here, we examined age-related differences in visual processing by recording eye movements from 37 children (aged 6-14years) and 10 adults while viewing three 5-min dynamic video clips taken from child-friendly movies. The data were analyzed in two complementary ways: (a) gaze based and (b) content based. First, similarity of scanpaths within and across age groups was examined using three different measures of variance (dispersion, clusters, and distance from center). Second, content-based models of fixation were compared to determine which of these provided the best account of our dynamic data. We found that the variance in eye movements decreased as a function of age, suggesting common attentional orienting. Comparison of the different models revealed that a model that relies on faces generally performed better than the other models tested, even for the youngest age group (<10years). However, the best predictor of a given participant's eye movements was the average of all other participants' eye movements both within the same age group and in different age groups. These findings have implications for understanding how children attend to visual information and highlight similarities in viewing strategies across development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew T Rider
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Antoine Coutrot
- Centre for Mathematics and Physics in Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1H 0AL, UK; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia
| | - Steven C Dakin
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
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Bremova-Ertl T, Schiffmann R, Patterson MC, Belmatoug N, Billette de Villemeur T, Bardins S, Frenzel C, Malinová V, Naumann S, Arndt J, Mengel E, Reinke J, Strobl R, Strupp M. Oculomotor and Vestibular Findings in Gaucher Disease Type 3 and Their Correlation with Neurological Findings. Front Neurol 2018; 8:711. [PMID: 29379464 PMCID: PMC5775219 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2017] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives To evaluate the function of the oculomotor and vestibular systems and to correlate these findings with the clinical status of patients with Gaucher disease type 3 (GD3). The goal of this cross-sectional and longitudinal study was to find oculomotor biomarkers for future clinical trials. Methods Twenty-six patients with GD3 were assessed for eligibility and 21 were able to perform at least one task. Horizontal and vertical reflexive saccades, smooth pursuit, gaze-holding, optokinetic nystagmus, and horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) were examined by video-oculography/video-head impulse test and compared concurrently with 33 healthy controls. The Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA), the modified Severity Scoring Tool (mSST), and Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) were administered to assess overall neurological function. Eleven patients were also re-assessed after 1 year. Results Nine out of 17 patients exhibited gaze-holding deficits. One patient had upbeat nystagmus. Three patients presented with bilateral abducens palsy in combination with central oculomotor disorders, suggesting a bilateral involvement of the abducens nucleus. Horizontal angular VOR gain was reduced in all patients (0.66 ± 0.37) compared with controls (1.1 ± 0.11, p < 0.001). Most strongly correlated with clinical rating scales were peak velocity of downward saccades (SARA: ρ = −0.752, p < 0.0005; mSST: ρ = −0.611, p = 0.003; GPT: ρ = −0.649, p = 0.005) and duration of vertical saccades (SARA: ρ = 0.806, p < 0.001; mSST: ρ = 0.700, p < 0.0005; GPT: ρ = 0.558, p = 0.02) together with the VOR gain (SARA: ρ = −0.63, p = 0.016; mSST: ρ = −0.725, p = 0.003; GPT: ρ = −0.666, p = 0.004). Vertical smooth pursuit gain decreased significantly at follow-up. Interpretation This study shows neuronal degeneration of the brainstem and cerebellum with combined involvement of both supranuclear and nuclear oculomotor structures and the vestibular system in GD3. We also identified oculomotor parameters that correlate with the neurological status and can be used as biomarkers in future clinical trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Bremova-Ertl
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Raphael Schiffmann
- Institute of Metabolic Disease, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Marc C Patterson
- Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic Children's Center, Rochester, MN, United States.,Department of Pediatrics, Mayo Clinic Children's Center, Rochester, MN, United States.,Department of Clinical Genomics, Mayo Clinic Children's Center, Rochester, MN, United States
| | - Nadia Belmatoug
- Referral Center for Lysosomal Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Paris Nord Val-de-Seine, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Thierry Billette de Villemeur
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC, GRC ConCer-LD and AP-HP, Hôpital Trousseau, Service de Neuropédiatrie - Pathologie du développement, Centre de référence des malformations et maladies congénitales du cervelet, Paris, France
| | - Stanislavs Bardins
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Claudia Frenzel
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany.,Department of Neurology, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Věra Malinová
- First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescence Medicine, Charles University, General University Hospital Prague, Prague, Czechia
| | - Silvia Naumann
- Villa Metabolica, Center for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Juliane Arndt
- Villa Metabolica, Center for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Eugen Mengel
- Villa Metabolica, Center for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Jörg Reinke
- Villa Metabolica, Center for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Ralf Strobl
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometrics and Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Michael Strupp
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany.,Department of Neurology, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany
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Maruta J, Spielman LA, Rajashekar U, Ghajar J. Visual Tracking in Development and Aging. Front Neurol 2017; 8:640. [PMID: 29250026 PMCID: PMC5714854 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2017] [Accepted: 11/15/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
A moving target is visually tracked with a combination of smooth pursuit and saccades. Human visual tracking eye movement develops through early childhood and adolescence, and declines in senescence. However, the knowledge regarding performance changes over the life course is based on data from distinct age groups in isolation using different procedures, and thus is fragmented. We sought to describe the age-dependence of visual tracking performance across a wide age range and compare it to that of simple visuo-manual reaction time. We studied a cross-sectional sample of 143 subjects aged 7-82 years old (37% male). Eye movements were recorded using video-oculography, while subjects viewed a computer screen and tracked a small target moving along a circular trajectory at a constant speed. For simple reaction time (SRT) measures, series of key presses that subjects made in reaction to cue presentation on a computer monitor were recorded using a standard software. The positional precision and smooth pursuit velocity gain of visual tracking followed a U-shaped trend over age, with best performances achieved between the ages of 20 and 50 years old. A U-shaped trend was also found for mean reaction time in agreement with the existing literature. Inter-individual variability was evident at any age in both visual tracking and reaction time metrics. Despite the similarity in the overall developmental and aging trend, correlations were not found between visual tracking and reaction time performances after subtracting the effects of age. Furthermore, while a statistically significant difference between the sexes was found for mean SRT in the sample, a similar difference was not found for any of the visual tracking metrics. Therefore, the cognitive constructs and their neural substrates supporting visual tracking and reaction time performances appear largely independent. In summary, age is an important covariate for visual tracking performance, especially for a pediatric population. Since visual tracking performance metrics may provide signatures of abnormal neurological or cognitive states independent of reaction time-based metrics, further understanding of age-dependent variations in normal visual tracking behavior is necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Maruta
- Brain Trauma Foundation, New York, NY, United States.,Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
| | | | | | - Jamshid Ghajar
- Brain Trauma Foundation, New York, NY, United States.,Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
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6
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Abstract
PURPOSE This study presents a two-degree customized animated stimulus developed to evaluate smooth pursuit in children and investigates the effect of its predetermined characteristics (stimulus type and size) in an adult population. Then, the animated stimulus is used to evaluate the impact of different pursuit motion paradigms in children. METHODS To study the effect of animating a stimulus, eye movement recordings were obtained from 20 young adults while the customized animated stimulus and a standard dot stimulus were presented moving horizontally at a constant velocity. To study the effect of using a larger stimulus size, eye movement recordings were obtained from 10 young adults while presenting a standard dot stimulus of different size (1° and 2°) moving horizontally at a constant velocity. Finally, eye movement recordings were obtained from 12 children while the 2° customized animated stimulus was presented after three different smooth pursuit motion paradigms. Performance parameters, including gains and number of saccades, were calculated for each stimulus condition. RESULTS The animated stimulus produced in young adults significantly higher velocity gain (mean: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.90-0.96; P = .014), position gain (0.93; 0.85-1; P = .025), proportion of smooth pursuit (0.94; 0.91-0.96, P = .002), and fewer saccades (5.30; 3.64-6.96, P = .008) than a standard dot (velocity gain: 0.87; 0.82-0.92; position gain: 0.82; 0.72-0.92; proportion smooth pursuit: 0.87; 0.83-0.90; number of saccades: 7.75; 5.30-10.46). In contrast, changing the size of a standard dot stimulus from 1° to 2° did not have an effect on smooth pursuit in young adults (P > .05). Finally, smooth pursuit performance did not significantly differ in children for the different motion paradigms when using the animated stimulus (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS Attention-grabbing and more dynamic stimuli, such as the developed animated stimulus, might potentially be useful for eye movement research. Finally, with such stimuli, children perform equally well irrespective of the motion paradigm used.
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Behavioral characterization of prediction and internal models in adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia 2016; 91:335-345. [PMID: 27553268 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2016] [Revised: 07/19/2016] [Accepted: 08/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Autism has been considered as a deficit in prediction of the upcoming event or of the sensory consequences of our own movements. To test this hypothesis, we recorded eye movements from high-functioning autistic adolescents and from age-matched controls during a blanking paradigm. In this paradigm, adolescents were instructed to follow a moving target with their eyes even during its transient disappearance. Given the absence of visual information during the blanking period, eye movements during this period are solely controlled on the basis of the prediction of the ongoing target motion. Typical markers of predictive eye movements such as the number and accuracy of predictive saccades and the predictive reacceleration before target reappearance were identical in the two populations. In addition, the synergy of predictive saccades and smooth pursuit observed during the blanking periods, which is a marker for the quality of internal models about target/eye motions, was comparable between these two populations. These results suggest that, in our large population of high-functioning autistic adolescent, both predictive abilities and internal models are left intact in Autism, at least for low-level sensorimotor transformations.
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Ego C, Yüksel D, Orban de Xivry JJ, Lefèvre P. Development of internal models and predictive abilities for visual tracking during childhood. J Neurophysiol 2016; 115:301-9. [PMID: 26510757 PMCID: PMC4760460 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00534.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2015] [Accepted: 10/28/2015] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The prediction of the consequences of our own actions through internal models is an essential component of motor control. Previous studies showed improvement of anticipatory behaviors with age for grasping, drawing, and postural control. Since these actions require visual and proprioceptive feedback, these improvements might reflect both the development of internal models and the feedback control. In contrast, visual tracking of a temporarily invisible target gives specific markers of prediction and internal models for eye movements. Therefore, we recorded eye movements in 50 children (aged 5-19 yr) and in 10 adults, who were asked to pursue a visual target that is temporarily blanked. Results show that the youngest children (5-7 yr) have a general oculomotor behavior in this task, qualitatively similar to the one observed in adults. However, the overall performance of older subjects in terms of accuracy at target reappearance and variability in their behavior was much better than the youngest children. This late maturation of predictive mechanisms with age was reflected into the development of the accuracy of the internal models governing the synergy between the saccadic and pursuit systems with age. Altogether, we hypothesize that the maturation of the interaction between smooth pursuit and saccades that relies on internal models of the eye and target displacement is related to the continuous maturation of the cerebellum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Ego
- Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Demet Yüksel
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium; Ophthalmology Department, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium; and
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- Department of Kinesiology, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Philippe Lefèvre
- Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium;
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9
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Ego C, Orban de Xivry JJ, Nassogne MC, Yüksel D, Lefèvre P. Spontaneous improvement in oculomotor function of children with cerebral palsy. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2015; 36C:630-644. [PMID: 25462523 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2014] [Accepted: 10/16/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Eye movements are essential to get a clear vision of moving objects. In the present study, we assessed quantitatively the oculomotor deficits of children with cerebral palsy (CP). We recorded eye movements of 51 children with cerebral palsy (aged 5-16 years) with relatively mild motor impairment and compared their performance with age-matched control and premature children. Overall eye movements of children with CP are unexpectedly close to those of controls even though some oculomotor parameters are biased by the side of hemiplegia. Importantly, the difference in performance between children with CP and controls decreases with age, demonstrating that the oculomotor function of children with CP develops as fast as or even faster than controls for some visual tracking parameters. That is, oculomotor function spontaneously improves over the course of childhood. This evolution highlights the ability of lesioned brain of children with CP to compensate for impaired motor function beyond what would be achieved by normal development on its own.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Ego
- ICTEAM, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- ICTEAM, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Marie-Cécile Nassogne
- Neuropediatric Department, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Demet Yüksel
- Ophthalmology Department, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Philippe Lefèvre
- ICTEAM, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
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Schmitt LM, Cook EH, Sweeney JA, Mosconi MW. Saccadic eye movement abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder indicate dysfunctions in cerebellum and brainstem. Mol Autism 2014; 5:47. [PMID: 25400899 PMCID: PMC4233053 DOI: 10.1186/2040-2392-5-47] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2014] [Accepted: 08/28/2014] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show atypical scan paths during social interaction and when viewing faces, and recent evidence suggests that they also show abnormal saccadic eye movement dynamics and accuracy when viewing less complex and non-social stimuli. Eye movements are a uniquely promising target for studies of ASD as their spatial and temporal characteristics can be measured precisely and the brain circuits supporting them are well-defined. Control of saccade metrics is supported by discrete circuits within the cerebellum and brainstem - two brain regions implicated in magnetic resonance (MR) morphometry and histopathological studies of ASD. The functional integrity of these distinct brain systems can be examined by evaluating different parameters of visually-guided saccades. Methods A total of 65 participants with ASD and 43 healthy controls, matched on age (between 6 and 44-years-old), gender and nonverbal IQ made saccades to peripheral targets. To examine the influence of attentional processes, blocked gap and overlap trials were presented. We examined saccade latency, accuracy and dynamics, as well as the trial-to-trial variability of participants’ performance. Results Saccades of individuals with ASD were characterized by reduced accuracy, elevated variability in accuracy across trials, and reduced peak velocity and prolonged duration. In addition, their saccades took longer to accelerate to peak velocity, with no alteration in the duration of saccade deceleration. Gap/overlap effects on saccade latencies were similar across groups, suggesting that visual orienting and attention systems are relatively spared in ASD. Age-related changes did not differ across groups. Conclusions Deficits precisely and consistently directing eye movements suggest impairment in the error-reducing function of the cerebellum in ASD. Atypical increases in the duration of movement acceleration combined with lower peak saccade velocities implicate pontine nuclei, specifically suggesting reduced excitatory activity in burst cells that drive saccades relative to inhibitory activity in omnipause cells that maintain stable fixation. Thus, our findings suggest that both cerebellar and brainstem abnormalities contribute to altered sensorimotor control in ASD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2040-2392-5-47) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren M Schmitt
- Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, University of Texas Southwestern, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9086 USA
| | - Edwin H Cook
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W. Roosevelt Rd (MC 747), Chicago, IL 60608 USA
| | - John A Sweeney
- Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, University of Texas Southwestern, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9086 USA ; Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Bond University, Gold Coast, QLD 4229 Australia
| | - Matthew W Mosconi
- Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, University of Texas Southwestern, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9086 USA ; Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9086 USA
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