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Development of prosaccade and antisaccade task performance in participants aged 6 to 26 years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2001

C. KLEIN
Affiliation:
Research Group Psychophysiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
F. FOERSTER
Affiliation:
Research Group Psychophysiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
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Abstract

There are few studies on the development of oculomotor functions during childhood. B. Fischer, M. Biscaldi, and S. Gezeck (1997) reported improvement of antisaccade task performance between ages 6 and 16 years. The present study is a replication and extension of those results. In three age groups (6–7, 10–11, 18–26 years), saccades during pro- and antisaccade tasks with 200-ms gap and overlap and during a fixation task were measured. Adults exhibited faster saccades and less prosaccades during the antisaccade tasks than 10–11-year-old children; these two groups had faster saccades during all tasks and less prosaccades during the anti- and the fixation task than 6–7-year-old subjects. Both children groups made more express saccades than adults. Results suggest different degrees of age-related improvement for different saccadic parameters, the effects being greatest for prosaccade inhibition during the antisaccade task and in line with the assumed protracted development of prefrontal functions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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