A review on eye movement studies in childhood and adolescent psychiatry

A review on eye movement studies in childhood and adolescent psychiatry

Nanda N.J.Rommelse a,b,*,Stefan Van der Stigchel c ,Joseph A.Sergeant b

a

Department of Psychiatry,Radboud University Medical Center,Reinier Postlaan 12,6525GC Nijmegen,The Netherlands b

Department of Clinical Neuropsychology,VU University-Amsterdam,Amsterdam,The Netherlands c

Department of Experimental Psychology,Utrecht University,Utrecht,The Netherlands

a r t i c l e i n f o Article history:

Accepted 26August 2008

Available online 2October 2008Keywords:Child

Adolescent Psychiatry

Eye movement Saccade

a b s t r a c t

The neural substrates of eye movement measures are largely known.Therefore,measurement of eye movements in psychiatric disorders may provide insight into the underlying neuropathology of these dis-orders.Visually guided saccades,antisaccades,memory guided saccades,and smooth pursuit eye move-ments will be reviewed in various childhood psychiatric disorders.The four aims of this review are (1)to give a thorough overview of eye movement studies in a wide array of psychiatric disorders occurring dur-ing childhood and adolescence (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,oppositional deviant disorder and conduct disorder,autism spectrum disorders,reading disorder,childhood-onset schizophrenia,Tourette’s syndrome,obsessive compulsive disorder,and anxiety and depression),(2)to discuss the spec-ificity and overlap of eye movement findings across disorders and paradigms,(3)to discuss the develop-mental aspects of eye movement abnormalities in childhood and adolescence psychiatric disorders,and (4)to present suggestions for future research.In order to make this review of interest to a broad audience,attention will be given to the clinical manifestation of the disorders and the theoretical background of the eye movement paradigms.

Ó2008Elsevier Inc.All rights reserved.

1.Aims and structure of this review 1.1.Aims

Eye movements are perhaps the most thoroughly studied do-main in the field of cognitive neuroscience.Numerous ingenious paradigms have been developed to unravel their underlying neuro-logical and cognitive substrates.Current knowledge of these pro-cesses has been obtained by measuring eye movements in monkeys and healthy adults.These studies have provided detailed knowledge of the basic characteristics of eye movements.This,in turn,has prompted researchers to assess eye movements in vari-ous psychiatric disorders and has facilitated the understanding of the complex underlying neuropathophysiology of these disorders.Most of these studies have focused on eye movements in adult pa-tients.These findings may not necessarily be extrapolated to child and adolescent patients,since the clinical manifestation and aetiol-ogy of psychiatric disorders may differ between childhood-onset and adult-onset (Carlson,Bromet,&Sievers,2000;Jaffee et al.,2002;Matsumoto et al.,2001).Moreover,eye movements them-selves may differ substantially between children and adults (Karatekin,2007;Mezzalira,Coelho Neves,Queiroz Maudonnet,o

Bilécki,&Gobbi de Ávila,2005).It seems important,therefore,to review separately eye movement studies in childhood and adoles-cent psychiatric disorders to determine which eye movement dys-functions are present in these patients.

Several reviews are available on eye movement studies in adult patients (often focused on a particular disorder or eye movement paradigm;Hutton &Ettinger,2006;Lee &Williams,2000;Reuter &Kathmann,2004;Trillenberg,Lencer,&Heide,2004),whereas only two reviews are available on child and adolescent patients (Karatekin,2007;Sweeney,Takarae,Macmillan,Luna,&Minshew,2004).Both reviews were instructive in reviewing the literature on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)and autism spec-trum disorders (ASD)American Psychiatric Association [APA](1994),but eye movement literature on Tourette’s syndrome (TS)and childhood-onset schizophrenia was reviewed in only one of these papers,and neither review focused on childhood-onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD),reading disorder (RD),anxi-ety and depression,or oppositional deviant disorder (ODD)and conduct disorder (CD).Therefore,the main aims of the current re-view are (1)to give a thorough overview of eye movement studies in a wide array of psychiatric disorders occurring during childhood and adolescence,(2)to discuss the specificity and overlap of eye movement findings across disorders,(3)to discuss the develop-mental aspects of eye movement abnormalities in childhood and adolescence psychiatric disorders,and (4)to present suggestions for future research.

0278-2626/$-see front matter Ó2008Elsevier Inc.All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2008.08.025

*Corresponding author.Address:Department of Psychiatry,Radboud University Medical Center,Reinier Postlaan 12,6525GC Nijmegen,The Netherlands.Fax:+31243512211.

E-mail address:mbregts-rommelse@psy.umcn.nl (N.N.J.Rommelse).Brain and Cognition 68(2008)

391–414

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