Saccadic variability in patients with Parkinson's disease
Kyoungwon Baik1, Seoyeon Byun2,3, Seoui Kwag3
1Department of Neurology, Korea University Medical Center, 73 Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, South Korea.
Journal of Neurology
|March 11, 2026
Summary
Saccadic variability in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is higher than in healthy individuals and correlates with motor symptom severity. This finding suggests saccadic analysis can aid in diagnosing PD and assessing its progression.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Movement Disorders
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor symptoms including delayed saccades and hypometria.
- Current diagnostic methods for PD have limitations in assessing saccadic parameters effectively in clinical settings.
- Hypothesis: Saccadic parameters exhibit fluctuations in PD patients, similar to motor fluctuations, offering a potential clinical measure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate saccadic parameter variability in de novo Parkinson's disease patients.
- To explore the potential of saccadic variability as a diagnostic and severity assessment tool for PD.
- To compare saccadic variability between PD patients and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 114 de novo PD patients and 70 healthy controls.
- Analysis of horizontal and vertical saccadic latency, amplitude, and velocity using mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation (CV).
- Application of Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), including control-deviation DTW (CD-DTW) and population-variability DTW (PV-DTW), to assess temporal saccadic variability.
Main Results:
- PD patients demonstrated significantly higher CV of saccadic amplitude compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001 for both horizontal and vertical).
- Saccadic variability measures (CV and CD-DTW) positively correlated with age and MDS-UPDRS-III scores.
- A logistic regression model combining CD-DTW and CV for horizontal saccadic amplitude showed high discriminatory power (AUC = 0.848).
Conclusions:
- Patients with Parkinson's disease exhibit increased saccadic variability compared to healthy individuals.
- Saccadic variability is associated with the severity of motor symptoms in PD.
- Saccadic analysis holds promise for aiding in the diagnosis and severity assessment of Parkinson's disease.
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