%X BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Saccades, rapid movements of the eyes towards a visual or remembered target, are useful in understanding the healthy brain and the pathology of neurological conditions such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). We set out to investigate the parameters of horizontal reflexive and volitional saccades, both visually guided and memory-guided, over a 1 min epoch in healthy individuals and PSP patients. METHODS: An experimental paradigm tested reflexive, volitional visually guided, and volitional memory-guided saccades in young healthy controls (n = 14; 20-31 years), PSP patients (n = 11; 46-75 years) and older age-matched healthy controls (n = 6; 56-71 years). The accuracy and velocity of saccades was recorded using an EyeBrain T2® video eye tracker and analyses performed using the MyEyeAnalysis® software. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify significant effects (p < 0.01) between young and older controls to investigate the effects of ageing upon saccades, and between PSP patients and age-matched controls to study the effects of PSP upon saccades. RESULTS: In both healthy individuals and PSP patients, volitional saccades are slower and less accurate than reflexive saccades. In PSP patients, accuracy is lower across all saccade types compared to age-matched controls, but velocity is lower only for reflexive saccades. Crucially, there is no change in accuracy or velocity of consecutive saccades over short (one-minute) timescales in controls or PSP patients. CONCLUSIONS: Velocity and accuracy of saccades in PSP does not decrease over one-minute timescales, contrary to that previously observed in Parkinson's Disease (PD), suggesting a potential clinical biomarker for the distinction of PSP from PD.
%K Eye movements, PSP, Reflexive, Saccades, Volitional
%A Isaac Hempstead Wright
%A Akila Sekar
%A Marte Theilmann Jensen
%A Megan Hodgson
%A Matthew J Bancroft
%A Nehzat Koohi
%A Andrew J Lees
%A Huw R Morris
%A Diego Kaski
%V 443
%C Netherlands
%J Journal of the Neurological Sciences
%L discovery10159807
%I Elsevier BV
%D 2022
%O This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images
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users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
%T Reflexive and volitional saccadic eye movements and their changes in age and progressive supranuclear palsy