Regional Brain Volume and Cortical Thickness Mediate Age-Related Differences in Eye Movement Control

Eye movements (EMs) are considered biomarkers for age-related neurological or psychological deficits, and oculomotor control has been shown to strongly decline with age. This study aimed to understand the neural pathways of these age-related changes.

The analysis was based on 5,400 participants (aged 30-95 years) from the population-based Rhineland Study. EMs were recorded using video-based infrared oculography at 1,000 Hz. Brain structure measures were obtained from T1-weighted MR images using FreeSurfer. Relations of brain structure with EM outcomes were quantified using multivariable linear regression models while adjusting for age, sex, educational level, and best-corrected visual acuity. Brain structure measures were further analyzed as potential mediators in the relation between age and EM outcomes.

Larger volumes of the globus pallidus and thalamus were associated with shorter saccadic latencies. Thicker cortex in frontal and parietal brain regions was associated with fewer direction errors in the antisaccade task in female but not in male participants. Thicker cortex in the calcarine sulcus was associated with better smooth pursuit performance. Cerebellar gray and white matter volumes were associated with better performance on the antisaccade and smooth pursuit tasks. Mediation analyses suggested that age-related differences in brain structures explain up to 18% of age-related differences in oculomotor performance.

Our findings extend previous studies by identifying novel brain structural correlates of EM performance and quantifying the extent to which they explain age-related differences in EM performance. Our results show that differences in brain structure partly account for age-related differences in EM performance.