Improvement of the Saccadic Eye Movements with the Sport Training Activity

Abstract

Saccadic eye movement is a short rapid and abrupt movement of the eye occurring in fixating from one point to another. The demand of eye movement in sport vision is crucial to locate visual targets and stabilize images on the retina. Athletes were reported to have better visual abilities than non-athletes. In this study, athletes who actively played badminton (n = 20) and non-badminton players (n = 20) aged between 12 and 18 years old were recruited. Electro-oculography (EOG) was employed for analysis of saccadic eye movements. The clinical EOG made indirect measurement to record the eye movement with EOG angle of 30o. Subjects were instructed to follow the alternated light fixation without turning head during the saccadic task. The system automatically measured the average result of Arden ratio, latency, and amplitude potentials in dark phase and light phase of saccadic eye movement with both dark and light stages plotted and curve fitted. No significant differences (p = 0.20) were found between badminton player and non-badminton player in the mean latency of saccadic eye movements with 19.25 ± 0.83 and 18.79 ± 1.35 ms, respectively. Meanwhile, the badminton player showed statistically significant difference in amplitude of saccadic eye movements than non-badminton player (p < 0.001). The mean amplitude of saccadic eye movements in badminton player and non-badminton player was 28.34 ± 8.04 and 19.51 ± 5.61 µV, respectively. The saccadic eye movement showed how fast the visual system can fixate on an object. Improvement in the component in saccadic eye movements indicated that training activities might be contributed to the superiority of vision skills in badminton player.