TY - JOUR
T1 - Growing older does not always mean moving slower
T2 - Examining aging and the saccadic motor system
AU - Pratt, Jay
AU - Dodd, Michael
AU - Welsh, Timothy
N1 - Funding Information:
Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CHIR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council, and a Premier’s Research Excellence Award (PREA), to Jay Pratt supported this work. Michael Dodd received support from a William George Scott Fellowship in Gerontology and also from the CIHR, and Timothy Welsh received support from PREA. We thank Leo Trottier and Jen Boyd for their help with programming and data collection.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - Although humans typically move more slowly as they age, one exception may be the saccadic motor system. To fully determine whether the execution of saccades is affected by age, the authors examined detailed kinematics of vertical and horizontal saccades across a range of saccadic amplitudes (4°, 8°, and 12°). Ten younger and 20 older adults participated in each experiment. Whereas in the 1st experiment, the authors assessed volitionally generated saccades, in the 2nd experiment, they evaluated reflexively generated saccades. The results of those experiments showed that the saccadic motor system is relatively impervious to the effects of aging; in fact, the differences between vertical and horizontal saccades were more evident than were differences between saccades produced by younger and older adults. The authors discuss possible reasons for that relative resistance to aging.
AB - Although humans typically move more slowly as they age, one exception may be the saccadic motor system. To fully determine whether the execution of saccades is affected by age, the authors examined detailed kinematics of vertical and horizontal saccades across a range of saccadic amplitudes (4°, 8°, and 12°). Ten younger and 20 older adults participated in each experiment. Whereas in the 1st experiment, the authors assessed volitionally generated saccades, in the 2nd experiment, they evaluated reflexively generated saccades. The results of those experiments showed that the saccadic motor system is relatively impervious to the effects of aging; in fact, the differences between vertical and horizontal saccades were more evident than were differences between saccades produced by younger and older adults. The authors discuss possible reasons for that relative resistance to aging.
KW - Aging
KW - Eye movements
KW - Kinematics
KW - Saccades
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33747891713&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33747891713&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3200/JMBR.38.5.373-382
DO - 10.3200/JMBR.38.5.373-382
M3 - Article
C2 - 16968683
AN - SCOPUS:33747891713
SN - 0022-2895
VL - 38
SP - 373
EP - 382
JO - Journal of Motor Behavior
JF - Journal of Motor Behavior
IS - 5
ER -