Age-related changes in head and eye coordination

Abstract

The effect of ageing upon head movements during gaze shifts is unknown. We have investigated age-related changes in head and eye coordination in a group of healthy volunteers. Horizontal head and eye movements were recorded in 53 subjects, aged between 20 and 83 years, during the performance of saccades, antisaccades, smooth pursuit and a reading task. The subjects were divided into three groups, young subjects (20–40 years), middle-aged subjects (41–60 years) and older subjects (over 60 years). Logarithmic transformations of the head gain were significantly greater in the older subjects compared to the young subjects during the saccadic task ( P=0.001), antisaccadic task ( P=0.0004), smooth pursuit at 20°/s ( P=0.001) and 40°/s ( P=0.005), but not reading. For saccadic and antisaccadic tasks, the increase in transformed head gain was non-linear with significant differences between older and middle-aged subjects but not middle-aged and young subjects. Head movement tendencies were highly consistent for related tasks. Head movement gain during gaze shifts significantly increases with age, which may contribute to dizziness and balance problems experienced by the elderly.