Submitted on November 8, 2005
Accepted on January 4, 2006
Development of saccadic suppression in children
Aurelio Bruno1, Simona M. Brambati2, Daniela Perani3, and Maria Concetta Morrone4*
1 Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy; Dept of Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
2 Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy
3 Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy; CNR, IBFM, Milan, Italy; Istituto scientifico San Raffaele, Milan, Italy
4 Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy; CNR, Istituto di Neuroscienze, Pisa, Italy
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: concetta.morrone{at}hsr.it.
We measured saccadic suppression in adolescent children and young adults, using spatially curtailed low spatial frequency stimuli. For both groups, sensitivity for colour-modulated stimuli was unchanged during saccades. Sensitivity for luminance-modulated stimuli was greatly reduced during saccades in both groups, but far more for adolescents than for young adults. Adults suppression was on average a factor of about three, while that for the adolescent group was closer to a factor of ten. The specificity of the suppression to luminance-modulated stimuli excludes generic explanations such as task difficulty and attention. We suggest that the enhanced suppression in adolescents results from the immaturity of the ocular-motor system at that age.
