[Smooth pursuit and saccadic tests outcome in healthy persons in different age]

The study of eye movement presents a unique opportunity to investigate the integrity of central ocular-motor pathways and structures, involved in the generation and control of ocularmotor reflexes, which is important in the diagnosis of rate balance system in otoneurology. In psychiatry, oculography is useful for the evaluation of schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive and affective disorders as well as the effectiveness of psychoactive drugs.

The aim of the study was to investigate the results of smooth pursuit and saccadic tests in healthy persons in respect to age and stimulus paradigm.

Sixty seven subjects in different age: 16--young (mean 29.8 years), 38--middle-aged (mean 53.2 years) and 13--elderly (mean 73.6 years) were enrolled in the study. Oculographic tests were performed on the computerized ENG system. The pursuit target was driven by a predictable sinusoidal task at various frequencies 30 Hz, 40 Hz, 50 Hz and amplitudes of 15 degrees, 20 degrees and 30 degrees. In the saccades test the target moved abruptly 15 degrees left and right of the centre. In all tests, several parameters and the 95% prediction interval (95 PI) were calculated.

In the smooth pursuit test gain decreased with ageing. The differences between age groups (younger-middle-age and younger-elderly) were statistically significant for each target velocity. In this study we found no significant evidence that age has an impact on the parameters of saccadic tests.

These findings suggest that the results of oculomotor tests should be quantified by the age of the patient and the target task.