Oculomotor Function in Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD or Co-occurring Autism and ADHD

• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06718-3
• Publication Date: 2025-01-24T16:52:18Z
• Authors: Elana J. Forbes; Jeggan Tiego; Joshua Langmead; Kathryn E. Unruh; Matthew W. Mosconi; Amy Finlay; Kathryn Kallady; Lydia Maclachlan; Mia Moses; Kai Cappel; Rachael Knott; Tracey Chau; Vishnu Priya Moha...; Alessio Bellato; Madeleine J. Groom; Rebecca Kerestes; Mark A. Bellgrove; Beth P. Johnson
• Keywords: Neurotypical

Abstract Oculomotor characteristics, including accuracy, timing, and sensorimotor processing, are considered sensitive intermediate phenotypes for understanding the etiology of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism ADHD. characteristics have predominantly been studied separately in Despite high rates co-occurrence between these only one study has investigated oculomotor processes among those with co-occurring + Four hundred five ( n = 405; 226 males) Australian children adolescents aged 4 to 18 years (M 9.64 years; SD 3.20 years) ADHD 64), 66), 146), or neurotypical individuals 129) were compared across four different tasks: visually guided saccade, anti-saccade, sinusoidal pursuit step-ramp pursuit. Confirmatory analyses conducted using separate datasets acquired from University Nottingham UK 17 autism, 22 ADHD, 32 30 neurotypical) Kansas USA 29 41 neurotypical). Linear mixed effect models controlling sex, age family revealed that exhibited increased variability accuracy final saccadic eye position adolescents. Autistic demonstrated a greater number catch-up saccades during These findings suggest select differences precision unique autistic indicating measuring basic may be useful parsing neurodevelopment clinical heterogeneity autism.