Autism Is Associated with Deficits in Pursuit Eye Movements

Autism is a developmental disorder that some evidence suggests is caused by abnormal maturation of functional connectivity of cerebral networks. These authors hypothesized that disconnectivity may impair behaviors such as smooth pursuit eye movement that require integration of distributed cerebral regions. In 60 autistic subjects and 94 matched controls, the authors analyzed multiple measures of pursuit eye movement. Using unpredictable ramp targets, they examined latency to start pursuit as well as open-loop gain (the size of the pursuit response before visual feedback becomes available). Using both ramp targets and regularly oscillating targets, they also examined closed-loop gain (pursuit response after visual feedback becomes available)…