Attention-Related Eye Vergence Measured in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2015 Dec 24

PMID 26694162

Citations 10

Authors

Maria Sole Puig

Laura Perez Zapata

Laura Puigcerver

Neus Esperalba Iglesias

Carmen Sanchez Garcia

August Romeo

Josep Canete Crespillo

Hans Super

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Recent evidence shows a novel role for eye vergence in orienting attention in adult subjects. Here we investigated whether such modulation in eye vergence by attention is present in children and whether it is altered in children with ADHD compared to control subjects. We therefore measured the angle of eye vergence in children previously diagnosed with ADHD while performing a cue task and compared the results to those from age-matched controls. We observed a strong modulation in the angle of vergence in the control group and a weak modulation in the ADHD group. In addition, in the control group the modulation in eye vergence was different between the informative cue and uninformative cue condition. This difference was less noticeable in the ADHD group. Our study supports the observation of deficient binocular vision in ADHD children. We argue that the observed disruption in vergence modulation in ADHD children is manifest of altered cognitive processing of sensory information. Our work may provide new insights into attention disorders, like ADHD.

Citing Articles

Efferent compared to afferent neural substrates of the vergence eye movement system evoked via fMRI.

Sangoi A, Hajebrahimi F, Gohel S, Scheiman M, Alvarez T Front Neurosci. 2025; 18:1497326.

PMID: 39844855 PMC: 11750780. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1497326.

Convergence insufficiency prevalence in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder children depends on the diagnosis criteria.

Clave L, Torrents A Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2024; 45(1):23-30.

PMID: 39462237 PMC: 11629851. DOI: 10.1111/opo.13411.

Eye movements in patients with post-COVID condition.

Vinuela-Navarro V, Goset J, Aldaba M, Mestre C, Rovira-Gay C, Cano N Biomed Opt Express. 2023; 14(8):3936-3949.

PMID: 37799689 PMC: 10549724. DOI: 10.1364/BOE.489037.

Frequencies and patterns of symptoms in Chinese adults with accommodative and binocular dysfunctions.

Wu Y, Xiong L, Wang Y, Chen Q, Li F, Zhang W Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2023; 261(10):2961-2970.

PMID: 36757504 DOI: 10.1007/s00417-022-05968-0.

Detection of ADHD From EOG Signals Using Approximate Entropy and Petrosain's Fractal Dimension.

Shoouri N J Med Signals Sens. 2022; 12(3):254-262.

PMID: 36120401 PMC: 9480511. DOI: 10.4103/jmss.jmss_119_21.

References

Super H, Uylings H . The early differentiation of the neocortex: a hypothesis on neocortical evolution. Cereb Cortex. 2001; 11(12):1101-9. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/11.12.1101. View

Daum K . Convergence insufficiency. Am J Optom Physiol Opt. 1984; 61(1):16-22. DOI: 10.1097/00006324-198401000-00003. View

van der Togt C, Kalitzin S, Spekreijse H, Lamme V, Super H . Synchrony dynamics in monkey V1 predict success in visual detection. Cereb Cortex. 2005; 16(1):136-48. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhi093. View

Johnston B, Mwangi B, Matthews K, Coghill D, Konrad K, Douglas Steele J . Brainstem abnormalities in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder support high accuracy individual diagnostic classification. Hum Brain Mapp. 2014; 35(10):5179-89. PMC: 6869620. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22542. View

Kirkby J, Webster L, Blythe H, Liversedge S . Binocular coordination during reading and non-reading tasks. Psychol Bull. 2008; 134(5):742-763. DOI: 10.1037/a0012979. View

Gamlin P . Neural mechanisms for the control of vergence eye movements. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002; 956:264-72. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb02825.x. View

Seassau M, Gerard C, Bui-Quoc E, Bucci M . Binocular saccade coordination in reading and visual search: a developmental study in typical reader and dyslexic children. Front Integr Neurosci. 2014; 8:85. PMC: 4214188. DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2014.00085. View

Mays L . Neural control of vergence eye movements: convergence and divergence neurons in midbrain. J Neurophysiol. 1984; 51(5):1091-1108. DOI: 10.1152/jn.1984.51.5.1091. View

Kara P, Boyd J . A micro-architecture for binocular disparity and ocular dominance in visual cortex. Nature. 2009; 458(7238):627-31. PMC: 2700034. DOI: 10.1038/nature07721. View

10.

Rucci M, Desbordes G . Contributions of fixational eye movements to the discrimination of briefly presented stimuli. J Vis. 2004; 3(11):852-64. DOI: 10.1167/3.11.18. View

11.

Alvarez J, Freides D . Research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder using the covert orienting paradigm of Posner. Dev Neuropsychol. 2004; 26(2):627-45. DOI: 10.1207/s15326942dn2602_6. View

12.

Fried M, Tsitsiashvili E, Bonneh Y, Sterkin A, Wygnanski-Jaffe T, Epstein T . ADHD subjects fail to suppress eye blinks and microsaccades while anticipating visual stimuli but recover with medication. Vision Res. 2014; 101:62-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2014.05.004. View

13.

Engbert R, Kliegl R . Microsaccades keep the eyes' balance during fixation. Psychol Sci. 2004; 15(6):431-6. DOI: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00697.x. View

14.

Granet D, Gomi C, Ventura R, Miller-Scholte A . The relationship between convergence insufficiency and ADHD. Strabismus. 2005; 13(4):163-8. DOI: 10.1080/09273970500455436. View

15.

Valera E, Faraone S, Murray K, Seidman L . Meta-analysis of structural imaging findings in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2006; 61(12):1361-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.06.011. View

16.

Nitta T, Akao T, Kurkin S, Fukushima K . Vergence eye movement signals in the cerebellar dorsal vermis. Prog Brain Res. 2008; 171:173-6. DOI: 10.1016/S0079-6123(08)00623-7. View

17.

Martinez-Conde S, Macknik S, Troncoso X, Dyar T . Microsaccades counteract visual fading during fixation. Neuron. 2006; 49(2):297-305. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.11.033. View

18.

Kirkby J, Blythe H, Drieghe D, Liversedge S . Reading text increases binocular disparity in dyslexic children. PLoS One. 2011; 6(11):e27105. PMC: 3208567. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027105. View

19.

Coubard O . Saccade and vergence eye movements: a review of motor and premotor commands. Eur J Neurosci. 2013; 38(10):3384-97. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.12356. View

20.

Sole Puig M, Perez Zapata L, Aznar-Casanova J, Super H . A role of eye vergence in covert attention. PLoS One. 2013; 8(1):e52955. PMC: 3561361. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052955. View