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To look or not to look? Typical and atypical development of oculomotor control
Gaia Scerif1, Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Ruth Campos
1University College London, UK. gs@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk
Insights
Toddlers with fragile X syndrome (FXS) show atypical development of eye movement control, specifically in inhibiting saccades and directing them to anticipated locations. This contrasts with typically developing toddlers, indicating potential inhibitory deficits in FXS.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Genetics
Background:
- Saccadic eye movement control, including inhibiting prosaccades and generating antisaccades, is crucial for cognitive development.
- While 4-month-olds can inhibit reflexive saccades, the development of antisaccades and their neural basis remain largely unexplored.
- Fragile X syndrome (FXS) offers a unique genetic model to investigate the neuro-computational underpinnings of saccadic control development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate oculomotor control development in typically developing toddlers and toddlers with fragile X syndrome (FXS).
- To explore the neuro-computational properties contributing to saccadic control in the context of FXS.
- To examine the developmental trajectory of saccadic control and its correlation with age in both groups.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study design was employed, assessing eye movement control in typically developing toddlers and toddlers with FXS.
- Participants were tested on their ability to inhibit saccades to peripheral cues and direct them to predicted contralateral locations.
- Performance metrics were analyzed in relation to chronological and mental age to assess developmental correlations.
Main Results:
- Typically developing toddlers demonstrated age-correlated decreases in looking toward peripheral cues predicting contralateral rewards.
- Toddlers with FXS did not show this anticipatory saccadic inhibition, failing to decrease looks to peripheral onsets.
- The expected correlation between performance and age was absent in the FXS group, unlike in controls.
Conclusions:
- Saccadic control and its developmental trajectory are atypical in toddlers with fragile X syndrome.
- Findings suggest underlying inhibitory deficits in toddlers with FXS, consistent with observations in older individuals.
- The study highlights potential implications for understanding the neural mechanisms of typical and atypical oculomotor development.
Abstract:
The ability to inhibit saccades toward suddenly appearing peripheral stimuli (prosaccades) and direct them to contralateral locations instead (antisaccades) is a crucial marker of eye movement control. Typically developing infants as young as 4-month-olds can learn to inhibit reflexive saccades to peripheral stimuli, but they do not produce antisaccades, whose development later in infancy and its underlying neural computations remain unexplored. Here we tested oculomotor control in typically developing toddlers and toddlers with fragile X syndrome (FXS), a disorder of known genetic origin that allows the investigation of the neuro-computational properties contributing to the development of saccadic control. Typically developing toddlers decreased looking toward peripheral cues that predicted contralateral rewards, whose appearance they anticipated. Furthermore, this correlated with age, indicating a gradual development of saccadic control. In contrast with the typical case, toddlers with FXS did not decrease their looks to peripheral onsets that predicted contralateral events. Importantly, the atypical pattern of performance was also evident in the elimination of the correlation with mental or chronological age found in controls. Taken together, the findings suggest that control of saccades and its developmental trajectory is atypical in toddlers with FXS, consistent with inhibitory deficits previously shown at later ages in this condition. Potential implications for the neural mechanisms underlying the typical and atypical development of oculomotor control are discussed.
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