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Differing effects of prosaccades and antisaccades on postural stability

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Abstract

The goal of the study was to examine the effect of different types of eye movements on postural stability. Ten healthy young adults (25 ± 3 years) participated in the study. Postural control was measured by the TechnoConcept© platform and recorded in Standard Romberg and Tandem Romberg conditions while participants performed five oculomotor tasks: two fixation tasks (central fixation cross, without and with distractors), two prosaccade tasks toward peripheral targets displayed 4° to the left or to the right of the fixation cross (reactive saccades induced by a gap 0 ms paradigm and voluntary saccades induced by an overlap 600 ms paradigm) and one antisaccade task (voluntary saccade made in the opposite direction of the visual target). The surface, the length, and the mean speed of the center of pressure were analyzed. We found that saccadic eye movements improved postural stability with respect to the fixation tasks. Furthermore, antisaccades were found to decrease postural stability compared to prosaccades (reactive as well as voluntary saccades). This result is in line with the U-shaped nonlinear model described by Lacour et al. (Neurophysiol Clin 38:411–421, 2008), showing that a secondary task performed during a postural task could increase (prosaccade task) or decrease (antisacade task) postural stability depending on its complexity. We suggest that the different degree of attentional resources needed for performing prosaccade or antisaccade tasks are, most likely, responsible for the different effect on postural control.

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Acknowledgments

Agathe Legrand was supported by the prize of “Association Posture et Equilibre,” Grenoble 2010.

Conflict of interest

Authors have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work in this study.

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Author notes

  1. Agathe Legrand, Karine Doré Mazars & Christelle Lemoine

    Present address: Laboratoire Vision Action Cognition EAU01, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Institut de Psychologie, IUPDP, Université Paris Descartes, 71, avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92774, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

  2. Maria Pia Bucci

    Present address: Laboratoire de Physiopathologie et neuroprotection des atteintes du cerveau en développement UMR 676 INSERM, Hôpital Robert Debré, Université Paris Diderot, 48 Bd Sérurier., 75019, Paris, France

  3. Julien Barra

    Present address: Laboratoire Mémoire Cognition EAU02, Institut de Psychologie, IUPDP, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neuropsychologie Cognitives, FRE 3292 CNRS, IUPDP, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    Agathe Legrand, Karine Doré Mazars, Julie Lazzareschi, Christelle Lemoine, Julien Barra & Maria Pia Bucci

  2. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris , France

    Karine Doré Mazars

  3. Laboratoire TIMC-IMAG, UMR CNRS 5525, Faculté de médecine, Université Joseph Fourier, Bâtiment Jean Roget, 38700, La Tronche, France

    Isabelle Olivier

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  1. Agathe Legrand
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Correspondence to Agathe Legrand.

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Legrand, A., Mazars, K.D., Lazzareschi, J. et al. Differing effects of prosaccades and antisaccades on postural stability. Exp Brain Res 227, 397–405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3519-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3519-z

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