AUTHOR=Crawford Trevor J.

TITLE=The disengagement of visual attention in Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal eye-tracking study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00118

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2015.00118

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Introduction:</bold> Eye tracking provides a convenient and promising biological marker of cognitive impairment in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Here we report a longitudinal study of saccadic eye movements in a sample of patients with Alzheimer's disease and elderly control participants who were assessed at the start of the study and followed up 12-months later.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Eye movements were measured in the standard gap and overlap paradigms, to examine the longitudinal trends in the ability to disengage attention from a visual target.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Overall patients with Alzheimer's disease had slower reaction times than the control group. However, after 12-months, both groups showed faster and comparable reductions in reaction times to the gap, compared to the overlap stimulus. Interestingly, there was a general improvement for both groups with more accurately directed saccades and speeding of reaction times after 12-months.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> These findings point to the value of longer-term studies and follow-up assessment to ascertain the effects of dementia on oculomotor control.</p>