Abstract
The antisaccadic task is sensitive to what is called frontal dysfunction, i.e. dysfunction of the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex which are the basis for a wide range of symptoms. The present study examined saccadic eye movements in adolescents with persistent history of maltreatment. Participants included 17 female subjects with maltreatment history. The control group consisted of 54 typically developing female subjects. All participants were administered Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and saccadic eye movement tests. CBCL showed significant differences between the maltreated and control groups. The prosaccadic test revealed insignificant results between both groups. The antisaccadic test revealed a highly significant difference (longer latencies, more prosaccadic mistakes in the group of maltreated subjects). Antisaccadic eye movements may be regarded as a possible indicator of persistent maltreatment and following emotional and behavioral problems and may therefore enhance diagnostic methods.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by Grant Nr. 100/2013/S from the Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. The funding agency had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments in improving earlier version of this manuscript and their kind support for our further work in the field.
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Jiri Jost and Helena Havlisova have received research grant Nr. 100/2013/S from the Grant Agency of the South Bohemia University, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. The funding agency had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Zuzana Bilkova, Zuzana Stefankova, and Ludmila Zemkova declare that they have no conflicts to report.
Ethical Standards and Informed Consent
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revized in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
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Jost, J., Havlisova, H., Bilkova, Z. et al. Adolescents with Persistent History of Maltreatment Fail in Antisaccadic Task. Journ Child Adol Trauma 11, 163–171 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0195-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0195-3