Age-related changes in parameters of saccadic eye movements in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of high-prevalence neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood. Neuronal deficit, especially in the attention and executive function processing networks, have been implicated in ADHD patients by using sophisticated structural and functional neuroimaging approaches [1].

The aim of this study was to analyze changes in parameters of saccadic eye movements (SEM) in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in two age groups (79 and 1012 years old) using the hardware-software complex and techniques developed in the laboratory of neurocybernetics FSBSI RSN [2]. The analysis showed a statistically significant increase in saccadic latent periods and durations and greater than normal intra- and extraindividual variability in both groups of patients with ADHD com-pared with healthy children of similar age groups. Analysis of saccades parameters in two age groups of healthy children showed no reliable differences between their latent periods and durations in the process of growing up. Comparison of saccades parameters in two age groups of children with ADHD also showed no reliable differences in durations, while latent periods in children of older age group decreased, while remaining reliably increased compared with healthy children of similar age.

The value of latent periods is closely related to the function of attention. Reduced latent periods in children with ADHD from older age groups reflects a slight improvement in the function of attention in the process of growing up, while still not reaching the stan-dards, as can be seen from the reliable increase in these indices compared with healthy children of similar age.