Gap Effect Abnormalities during a Visually Guided Pro-Saccade Task in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that starts in early childhood and has a comprehensive impact on psychosocial activity and education as well as general health across the lifespan. Despite its prevalence, the current diagnostic criteria for ADHD are debated. Saccadic eye movements are easy to quantify and may be a quantitative biomarker for a wide variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including ADHD. The goal of this study was to examine whether children with ADHD exhibit abnormalities during a visually guided pro-saccadic eye-movement and to clarify the neurophysiological mechanisms associated with their behavioral impairments. Thirty-seven children with ADHD (aged 5–11 years) and 88 typically developing (TD) children (aged 5–11 years) were asked to perform a simple saccadic eye-movement task in which step and gap conditions were randomly interleaved. We evaluated the gap effect, which is the difference in the reaction time between the two conditions. Children with ADHD had a significantly longer reaction time than TD children (p < 0.01) and the gap effect was markedly attenuated (p < 0.01). These results suggest that the measurement of saccadic eye movements may provide a novel method for evaluating the behavioral symptoms and clinical features of ADHD, and that the gap effect is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of ADHD in early childhood.

Can auditory warning signals normalize eye movements in children with ADHD?

“…Indeed, this effect has been reported in a number of previous studies (e.g. [11,14,55,56].). Importantly, however, our results add novelty to these findings by showing that phasic alerting cues normalized this visual attention pattern by decreasing saccadic latencies in the ADHD group, but this effect was not observed in typically developing children.…”

Analysis of Eye Movement and Critical Fusion Frequency Responses to Different Movie Types

“…In other words, if gazing at the target is steadier, saccade delay occurs. It has been found that the saccade latency of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is slower than typically developing children [18]. In addition, it is anticipated that the motion of saccades is influenced from not only the superior colliculus but also the central nervous system affecting the CFF [19].…”

Diagnosis of oculomotor anomalies in children with learning disorders

“…The authors concluded that the difficulty of performing actions in the antisaccadic tasks persisted in adulthood, with the most relevant problem observed in adequate preparation, but not in the motor task. 39 Matsuo et al 40 analysed visual, neurological or psychiatric primary results using samples of children with a maximum age of 11 years. The authors used an eye-tracker to characterise the eye movements.…”

“…The authors did not include any measurement of the status of the visual health or the binocular vision that could cause bias when analysing the results. Only Matsuo et al 40 considered optical correction but did not analyse the status of the binocular vision. It should be considered that a great variety of studies have shown how refractive error, accommodation and binocular vision dysfunctions can affect reading and learning.…”