Vertical and horizontal smooth pursuit eye movements in children: a neuro-developmental study.

An evaluation of eye movements is very useful in neurological disorders but is complicated by issues such as maturation and lack of normative data in children. In order to address these issues we studied smooth pursuit eye movements of 65 normal children aged 7-11 years old. The gain of horizontal smooth pursuit (HSP) was higher than the gain of the vertical smooth pursuit (SP) and this difference had a statistical tendency to disappear with aging from 7 to 11 years. These data suggest that, in the cerebral regions involved in the control of SP, i.e. posterior parietal and superior temporal lobe regions, the networks for VSP mature latter than those for HSP.