Monitoring the acute and subacute recovery of cognitive ocular motor changes after a sports-related concussion.

Identifying when recovery from a sports-related concussion (SRC) has occurred remains a challenge in clinical practice. This study investigated the utility of ocular motor (OM) assessment to monitor recovery post-SRC between sexes and compared to common clinical measures. From 139 preseason baseline assessments (i.e. before they sustained an SRC), 18 (12 males, 6 females) consequent SRCs were sustained and the longitudinal follow-ups were collected at 2, 6, and 13 days post-SRC. Participants completed visually guided, antisaccade (AS), and memory-guided saccade tasks requiring a saccade toward, away from, and to a remembered target, respectively. Changes in latency (processing speed), visual-spatial accuracy, and errors were measured. Clinical measures included The Sports Concussion Assessment Tool, King-Devick test, Stroop task, and Digit span. AS latency was significantly longer at 2 days and returned to baseline by 13-days post-SRC in females only (P < 0.001). Symptom numbers recovered from 2 to 6 days and 13 days (P < 0.05). Persistently poorer AS visual-spatial accuracy was identified at 2, 6 and 13 days post-SRC (P < 0.05) in both males and females but with differing trajectories. Clinical measures demonstrated consistent improvement reminiscent of practice effects. OM saccade assessment may have improved utility in tracking recovery compared to conventional measures and between sexes.

Effect of laser eye protection devices on color perception.

Laser eye protection (LEP) devices may alter how colors are perceived in visual displays. This study investigates changes in color perception experienced by color-normal observers while wearing LEPs. Color perception with and without LEPs was measured using clinical color tests: City University Color Assessment and Diagnosis, Konan Medical ColorDx CCT-HD, and Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue. All LEPs induced a shift in color perception. The level of change in color perception significantly varied across LEPs. Consideration should be made when designing color displays where LEP devices are worn.

A biomarker and endophenotype for anorexia nervosa?

OBJECTIVE: Recent research has suggested that a type of atypical eye movement, called square wave jerks, together with anxiety, may distinguish individuals with anorexia nervosa from those without anorexia nervosa and may represent a biomarker and endophenotype for the illness. The aim of this study was to identify the presence of this proposed marker in individuals currently with anorexia nervosa relative to healthy controls, and to identify the state independence and heritability of this putative marker by exploring whether it also exists in individuals who are weight-restored from anorexia nervosa and first-degree relatives (i.e. sisters of people with anorexia nervosa). METHODS: Data from 80 female participants (20/group: current anorexia nervosa, weight-restored from anorexia nervosa, sisters of people with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls) were analysed. Square wave jerk rate was acquired during a fixation task, and anxiety was measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory. RESULTS: Current anorexia nervosa, weight-restored from anorexia nervosa and sisters of people with anorexia nervosa groups made significantly more square wave jerks than healthy controls, but did not differ from one another. Square wave jerk rate and anxiety were found to discriminate groups with exceptionally high accuracy (current anorexia nervosa vs healthy control = 92.5%; weight-restored from anorexia nervosa vs healthy control = 77.5%; sisters of people with anorexia nervosa vs healthy control = 77.5%; p < .001). CONCLUSION: The combination of square wave jerk rate and anxiety was found to be a promising two-element marker for anorexia nervosa, and has the potential to be used as a biomarker or endophenotype to identify people at risk of anorexia nervosa and inform future treatments.

Effects of tracker location on the accuracy and precision of the Gazepoint GP3 HD for spectacle wearers.

Remote view eye-tracking systems are prone to errors when used on spectacle wearers due to reflections from the lenses and frame that result in inaccurate tracking. Traditionally, these trackers are situated below a computer monitor and the viewer's eye moments are recorded while they view the screen. Reflections may be influenced by the pantoscopic tilt of the spectacles, whereby the tilt angle causes incident light to be reflected to the camera. To overcome this problem, we propose mounting the tracker above the monitor to avoid these reflections and test the accuracy and precision of subjects with single vision spectacles, multifocals, and no correction, using both mounting positions. Experimental results showed that this alternate position had overall worse accuracy (4.06° ± 0.13) and precision (0.67° ± 0.05) compared to the standard configuration (2.15° ± 0.06 vs. 0.50° ± 0.03), with more invalid readings (5.91 vs. 19.19%) for single vision lens wearers. Multifocals performed better for the top-mounting position for the top portion of the monitor, suggesting higher-order aberrations from the bottom portion of the lens negatively impact data quality. Higher pantoscopic tilt angles displayed an improved accuracy for this alternate position (r(9) = - 0.69, p = 0.02), with superior accuracy for tilt angles greater than 14° compared to the standard configuration. This study quantifies the impact of spectacle wear on eye-tracking performance and suggests other alternate mounting positions may be viable in certain situations.

A cross-sectional, prospective ocular motor study in 72 patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize ocular motor function in patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC). METHODS: In a multicontinental, cross-sectional study we characterized ocular-motor function in 72 patients from 12 countries by video-oculography. Interlinking with disease severity, we also searched for ocular motor biomarkers. Our study protocol comprised reflexive and self-paced saccades, smooth pursuit, and gaze-holding in horizontal and vertical planes. Data were compared with those of 158 healthy controls (HC). RESULTS: Some 98.2% of patients generated vertical saccades below the 95% CI of the controls' peak velocity. Only 46.9% of patients had smooth pursuit gain lower than that of 95% CI of HC. The involvement in both downward and upward directions was similar (51°/s (68.9, [32.7-69.3]) downward versus 78.8°/s (65.9, [60.8-96.8]) upward). Horizontal saccadic peak velocity and latency, vertical saccadic duration and amplitude, and horizontal position smooth pursuit correlated best to disease severity. Compensating strategies such as blinks to elicit saccades, and head and upper body movements to overcome the gaze palsy, were observed. Vertical reflexive saccades were more impaired and slower than self-paced ones. Gaze-holding was normal. Ocular-motor performance depended on the age of onset and disease duration. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest cohort of NPC patients investigated for ocular-motor function. Vertical supranuclear saccade palsy is the hallmark of NPC. Vertical upward and downward saccades are equally impaired. Horizontal saccadic peak velocity and latency, vertical saccadic duration and amplitude, and horizontal position smooth pursuit can be used as surrogate parameters for clinical trials. Compensating strategies can contribute to establishing a diagnosis.

Surgical interventions for infantile nystagmus syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) is a type of eye movement disorder that can negatively impact vision. Currently, INS cannot be cured, but its effects can potentially be treated pharmacologically, optically, or surgically. This review focuses on the surgical interventions for INS. Despite the range of surgical interventions available, and currently applied in practice for the management of INS, there is no clear consensus, and no accepted clinical guidelines regarding the relative efficacy and safety of the various treatment options. A better understanding of these surgical options, along with their associated side effects, will assist clinicians in evidence-based decision-making in relation to the management of INS. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of surgical interventions for INS. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE Ovid, Embase Ovid, ISRCTN registry, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) to 3 July 2020, with no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) studying the efficacy and safety of surgical options for treating INS. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Our prespecified outcome measures were the change from baseline in: binocular best-corrected distance visual acuity; head posture; amplitude, frequency, intensity, and foveation period durations of the nystagmus waveform; visual recognition times; quality of life and self-reported outcome measures; incidence of adverse effects with a probable causal link to treatment; and permanent adverse effects after surgery. Two review authors independently screened titles and abstracts and full-text articles, extracted data from eligible RCTs, and judged the risk of bias using the Cochrane tool. We reached consensus on any disagreements by discussion. We summarised the overall certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach. MAIN RESULTS: We only identified one eligible RCT (N = 10 participants), undertaken in India. This trial randomised participants to receive either a large retro-equatorial recession of the horizontal rectus muscle of 9 mm on the medial rectus and 12 mm on the lateral rectus, or a simple tenotomy and resuturing of the four horizontal rectus muscles. We did not identify any RCTs comparing a surgical intervention for INS relative to no treatment. In the single eligible RCT, both eyes of each participant received the same intervention. The participants' age and gender were not reported, nor was information on whether participants were idiopathic or had sensory disorders. The study only included participants with null in primary position and did not explicitly exclude those with congenital periodic alternating nystagmus. The study did not report funding source(s) or author declaration of interests. The evaluation period was six months. We judged this study at low risk for sequence generation and other sources of bias, but at high risk of bias for performance and detection bias. The risk of bias was unclear for selection bias, attrition bias, and reporting bias. There is very uncertain evidence about the effect of the interventions on visual acuity and change in amplitude, frequency, and intensity of the nystagmus waveform. We were unable to calculate relative effects due to lack of data. None of the participants in either intervention group reported adverse effects at six-month follow-up (very low-certainty evidence). There was no quantitative data reported for quality of life, although the study reported an improvement in quality of life after surgery in both intervention groups (very low-certainty evidence). Change in head posture, foveation period durations of the nystagmus waveform, visual recognition times, and permanent adverse effects after surgery were not reported in the included study. We judged the certainty of the evidence, for both the primary and secondary efficacy outcomes, to be very low. Due to a lack of comprehensive reporting of adverse events, there was also very low-certainty of the safety profile of the evaluated surgical interventions in this population. As such, we are very uncertain about the relative efficacy and safety of these interventions for the surgical management of INS. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review identified minimal high-quality evidence relating to the efficacy and safety of surgical interventions for INS. The limited availability of evidence must be considered by clinicians when treating INS, particularly given these procedures are irreversible and often performed on children. More high-quality RCTs are needed to better understand the efficacy and safety profile of surgical interventions for INS. This will assist clinicians, people with INS, and their parents or caregivers to make evidence-based treatment decisions.

Eye movements in anorexia nervosa: State or trait markers?

OBJECTIVE: Differences in saccadic eye movements are widely reported in mental illnesses, and can indirectly inform our understanding of neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of psychiatric conditions, including anorexia nervosa (AN). Preliminary research has suggested that individuals with AN may show specific eye movement abnormalities; whether these deficits are representative of state or trait effects is, however, unclear. The aim of this study was to identify whether there are demonstrable differences in performance on saccadic eye movement tasks in individuals with current AN (c-AN), those who are weight-restored from AN (wr-AN), biological sisters of individuals with AN (AN-sis), and healthy controls (HC). METHODS: Eighty participants took part in the study (n = 20/group). A set of saccadic eye movement tasks was administered, including prosaccade, antisaccade, memory-guided saccade, and visual scanpath tasks. RESULTS: The c-AN group showed an increased rate of inhibitory errors to 10° targets on the memory-guided saccade task. DISCUSSION: The results are discussed in terms of the potential role of the superior colliculus in AN, and that the findings may reflect a state measure of AN.

Effects of age and visual attention demands on optokinetic nystagmus suppression.

INTRODUCTION: The utility of optokinetic nystagmus suppression as an index of visual attention has been demonstrated; however, a gap exists in our understanding of the effects of aging on attentional division. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of a subject's age upon their ability to allocate visual attention among multiple salient elements which varied in location and complexity. METHOD: Large-field optokinetic nystagmus (OKN)-inducing animations were presented along with a central flashing fixation point to 27 subjects: 15 younger adults (range 19-23, mean age 21.4); and 12 older adults (range 65-89, mean age 74). Subjects were instructed to fixate on a central point while attending to either moving features of the background or solely to the fixation target. Failure of subjects to accurately divide their attention was quantified by optokinetic gain (eye velocity/background velocity). Gain was analysed in two separate 3-way ANOVAs: one at the central location with the between-subjects variable of age and within-subjects variables of complexity and dynamism; and one using only the dynamic tasks, including a between-subjects variable of age and within-subjects variables of complexity and location. RESULTS: A strong effect of age was found between subjects during the more attentionally demanding dynamic tasks, but there was only a marginal effect during the static tasks. All within-subjects variables were highly significant, and there were several significant 2- and 3-way interactions. CONCLUSION: This study provides strong evidence for the compounding effects of senescence and stimulus characteristics on an adult's ability to accurately allocate visual attention. These findings show that OKN suppression may be a useful framework for quantification of attentional resources in older subjects.

High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation in anorexia nervosa: A pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious psychiatric condition often associated with poor outcomes. Biologically informed treatments for AN, such as brain stimulation, are lacking, in part due to the unclear nature of the neurobiological contributions to the illness. However, recent research has suggested a specific neurobiological target for the treatment of AN, namely stimulation of the inferior parietal lobe (IPL). The aim of this study was to stimulate-noninvasively-the left IPL in individuals with AN using high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS). METHOD: Twenty participants will be randomized to receive 10 daily sessions of HD-tDCS or sham HD-tDCS (placebo). Assessments will be carried out at baseline and end point, as well as 4- and 12-week follow-ups. DISCUSSION: This pilot investigation will primarily determine the feasibility and acceptability of this intervention.

Differences in regional grey matter volumes in currently ill patients with anorexia nervosa.

Neurobiological findings in anorexia nervosa (AN) are inconsistent, including differences in regional grey matter volumes. Methodological limitations often contribute to the inconsistencies reported. The aim of this study was to improve on these methodologies by utilising voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis with the use of diffeomorphic anatomic registration through an exponentiated lie algebra algorithm (DARTEL), in a relatively large group of individuals with AN. Twenty-six individuals with AN and 27 healthy controls underwent a T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. AN participants were found to have reduced grey matter volumes in a number of areas including regions of the basal ganglia (including the ventral striatum), and parietal and temporal cortices. Body mass index (BMI) and global scores on the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) were also found to correlate with grey matter volumes in a region of the brainstem (including the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area) in AN, and predicted 56% of the variance in grey matter volumes in this area. The brain regions associated with grey matter reductions in AN are consistent with regions responsible for cognitive deficits associated with the illness including anhedonia, deficits in affect perception and saccadic eye movement abnormalities. Overall, the findings suggest reduced grey matter volumes in AN that are associated with eating disorder symptomatology.

White matter microstructure in anorexia nervosa.

The neurobiological underpinnings of anorexia nervosa (AN) are unclear. White matter deficits have been described in the illness, but findings are inconsistent between studies. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in white matter microstructure in AN using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). It was hypothesised that people with AN, relative to a healthy control (HC) group, would show decreased functional anisotropy (FA) and increased mean diffusivity (MD) in the fornix and superior longitudinal fasciculus, consistent with previous literature. Analyses were conducted on 23 females with AN and 26 age- and gender-matched HCs using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The results revealed widespread FA decreases and MD increases in the AN group. Our hypothesis was largely supported, although FA differences were not specifically found in the fornix. The findings suggest extensive differences in white matter structure in AN, which may contribute to AN pathophysiology.

Saccades under Mental Load in Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome and Controls.

SIGNIFICANCE: This study compares saccades and visual task performance in patients with infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) with that in normally sighted individuals under mental load. The results highlighted that to more completely evaluate INS therapies recognition time should also be measured with mental load, resembling real-world conditions. PURPOSE: Patients with INS may complain of "being slow to see." Stress is reported to worsen nystagmus and to prolong visual recognition time. We hypothesized that the effects of mental load on timing indices of visual recognition, for example, saccade latency, target acquisition time, target viewing time, and subjects' reaction time, differ between the INS and control groups. METHODS: Eye movements were recorded when participants (INS group, n = 15; controls, n = 25) reported the direction of tumbling-E targets presented randomly across ±25°. The task was repeated with both mental arithmetic and time restriction to impose high mental load, confirmed through subjective ratings and heart rate measurement. RESULTS: Mental load increased saccade latency (mean, 32.69 milliseconds; 95% confidence interval [CI], 21.17 to 44.20 milliseconds; P < .001) and target acquisition time (57.00 milliseconds; 95% CI, 34 to 81 milliseconds; P < .001). Patients with INS showed longer saccade latency (39.79 milliseconds; 95% CI, 23.98 to 55.62 milliseconds; P < .001) and target acquisition time (134.00 milliseconds; 95% CI, 96 to 172 milliseconds; P < .001) compared with controls. The interaction between task and group was significant for saccade gain (0.11; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.19; P = .015), target acquisition time (37.93 milliseconds; 95% CI, 36.91 to 38.96 milliseconds; P = .011), and subjects' reaction time (95.37 milliseconds; 95% CI, 65.91 to 124.84 milliseconds; P = .043). There was an inverse correlation between the changes in subjects' response errors and target viewing time with mental load only for controls (r = -0.484, P = .014). Total foveation exposure time and target viewing time remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Mental load worsens "being slow to see" in INS because of delayed target acquisition and possibly because efficiency of visual processing decreases more in patients with INS compared with controls. To investigate outcomes of INS therapies, visual recognition time should be also measured with mental load.

Task-induced Changes in Idiopathic Infantile Nystagmus Vary with Gaze.

PURPOSE: Investigations of infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) at center or at the null position have reported that INS worsens when visual demand is combined with internal states, e.g. stress. Visual function and INS parameters such as foveation time, frequency, amplitude, and intensity can also be influenced by gaze position. We hypothesized that increases from baseline in visual demand and mental load would affect INS parameters at the null position differently than at other gaze positions. METHODS: Eleven participants with idiopathic INS were asked to determine the direction of Tumbling-E targets, whose visual demand was varied through changes in size and contrast, using a staircase procedure. Targets appeared between ±25° in 5° steps. The task was repeated with both mental arithmetic and time restriction to impose higher mental load, confirmed through subjective ratings and concurrent physiological measurements. RESULTS: Within-subject comparisons were limited to the null and 15° away from it. No significant main effects of task on any INS parameters were found. At both locations, high mental load worsened task performance metrics, i.e. lowest contrast (P = .001) and smallest optotype size reached (P = .012). There was a significant interaction between mental load and gaze position for foveation time (P = .02) and for the smallest optotype reached (P = .028). The increase in threshold optotype size from the low to high mental load was greater at the null than away from it. During high visual demand, foveation time significantly decreased from baseline at the null as compared to away from it (mean difference ± SE: 14.19 ± 0.7 msec; P = .010). CONCLUSIONS: Under high visual demand, the effects of increased mental load on foveation time and visual task performance differed at the null as compared to 15° away from it. Assessment of these effects could be valuable when evaluating INS clinically and when considering its impact on patients' daily activities.

Body Image in Anorexia Nervosa: Body Size Estimation Utilising a Biological Motion Task and Eyetracking.

OBJECTIVE: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric condition characterised by a distortion of body image. However, whether individuals with AN can accurately perceive the size of other individuals' bodies is unclear. METHOD: In the current study, 24 women with AN and 24 healthy control participants undertook two biological motion tasks while eyetracking was performed: to identify the gender and to indicate the walkers' body size. RESULTS: Anorexia nervosa participants tended to 'hyperscan' stimuli but did not demonstrate differences in how visual attention was directed to different body areas, relative to controls. Groups also did not differ in their estimation of body size. DISCUSSION: The hyperscanning behaviours suggest increased anxiety to disorder-relevant stimuli in AN. The lack of group difference in the estimation of body size suggests that the AN group was able to judge the body size of others accurately. The findings are discussed in terms of body image distortion specific to oneself in AN.

Changes in saccadic eye movement and memory function after mild closed head injury in children.

AIM: The aim of this study was to determine whether volitional saccadic impairments are present in children with mild closed head injury (mCHI) and whether these deficits are predictive of ongoing cognitive impairment. METHOD: We analysed a sample of 26 children with mCHI (20 males, 6 females; mean age 13y 1mo, SD 2y) and 29 age-matched comparison children (20 males, 9 females; mean age 12y 2mo, SD 2y). Participants completed a battery of saccadic eye movement tasks and a set of computer-based cognitive tasks at three time points: within 2 weeks of mCHI, and at 3 months and 6 months. RESULTS: The group with mCHI made fewer errors on the antisaccade task at the first time point and showed increased latencies on prosaccades, correct antisaccades, and corrected antisaccade errors at the third time point (6mo). The group with mCHI also showed poorer performance on the cognitive tasks assessing memory. INTERPRETATION: Even very mild, uncomplicated mCHI in children may persistently affect aspects of executive control and visual processing.

Visual cortex anodal transcranial direct current stimulation does not alter reading performance for Chinese presented character-by-character to normal peripheral vision in older adults.

Visual cortex anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) has been shown to reduce crowding in normal peripheral vision and may improve the reading of English words in patients with macular degeneration. Given the different visual requirements of reading English words and Chinese characters, the effect of a-tDCS on peripheral reading performance in English might differ from Chinese. This study recruited 20 participants (59-73 years of age) with normal vision and tested the hypothesis that a-tDCS would improve the reading of Chinese characters presented at 10° eccentricity compared with sham stimulation. Chinese sentences of different print sizes and exposure durations were presented one character at a time, 10° below or to the left of fixation. The individual critical print size (CPS) - the smallest print size eliciting the maximum reading speed (MRS) - was determined. Reading accuracies for characters presented 0.2 logMAR smaller than the individually fitted CPS were measured at four time points: before, during, 5 min after, and 30 min after receiving active or sham visual cortex a-tDCS. Participants completed both the active and sham sessions in a random order following a double-blind, within-subject design. No effect of active a-tDCS on reading accuracy was observed, implying that a single session of a-tDCS did not improve Chinese character reading in normal peripheral vision. This may suggest that a-tDCS does not significantly reduce the crowding elicited within a single Chinese character. However, the effect of a-tDCS on between-character crowding is yet to be determined.

Cerebellar volume correlates with saccadic gain and ataxia in adult Niemann-Pick type C.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cerebellar Purkinje cells are known to be highly vulnerable to neuronal pathology in Niemann-Pick type C (NPC), a disease where widespread white matter changes have also been reported. We sought to determine the relationship between white and grey matter cerebellar changes and clinical variables in NPC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten adult patients with NPC were matched to control subjects (n=27) on age and gender. Patients were rated for symptom duration and severity, degree of ataxia, and were assessed for saccadic eye measures. Cerebellar white and grey matter volumes were automatically segmented using the Freesurfer software package. RESULTS: NPC patients had a significant reduction in both grey and white matter volumes. Volume did not correlate with symptom duration or severity, but did correlate with saccadic gain and ataxia measures. CONCLUSIONS: Both cerebellar grey and white matter volume decreases in adult NPC, and these changes are associated with impairments in saccadic gain and in motor control.

Visual search in infantile nystagmus syndrome.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Research on infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) and visual search is limited. Conducting this research could assist practitioners in understanding how INS affects the real-life visual activities of patients and aid in developing new clinical visual function assessments for INS. BACKGROUND: The aim of this work is to investigate how subjects with INS perform visual search tasks, and, particularly, to assess how INS subjects perform when targets are located at their null position or away from it, and when under additional cognitive demands. METHODS: INS subjects (N = 15) and controls (N = 20) performed conjunction and feature search tasks, both with and without mental arithmetic. Search performance was assessed using log-transformed total search time, gaze-dependent search time, and accuracy. Cognitive demand was quantified by pupil size and the NASA task-load index score. RESULTS: INS subjects showed longer search times compared to controls in conjunction search (P < 0.01), but not in feature search. Within INS and control subjects, the total search times were significantly increased by the addition of mental arithmetic (P < 0.0001). There was no difference in gaze-dependent search times between null target position and 15° away from null target position of subjects in conjunction search (P > 0.05). Accuracies were 100% for both control and INS subjects in both conjunction and feature search. CONCLUSION: Conjunction visual search was impaired in adult INS subjects, and further worsened under increased cognitive demand. The null position did not affect the visual search performance in INS.

Effect of habitual reading direction on saccadic eye movements: A pilot study.

Cognitive processes can influence the characteristics of saccadic eye movements. Reading habits, including habitual reading direction, also affect cognitive and visuospatial processes, favouring attention to the side where reading begins. Few studies have investigated the effect of habitual reading direction on saccade directionality of low-cognitive-demand stimuli (such as dots). The current study examined horizontal prosaccade, antisaccade, and self-paced saccade in subjects with two primary habitual reading directions. We hypothesised that saccades responding to the stimuli in subject's habitual reading direction would show a longer prosaccade latency and lower antisaccade error rate (errors being a reflexive glance to a sudden-appearing target, rather than a saccade away from it). Sixteen young Chinese participants with primary habitual reading direction from left to right and sixteen young Arabic and Persian participants with primary habitual reading direction from right to left were recruited. All subjects spoke/read English as their second language. Subjects needed to look towards a 5°/10° target in the prosaccade task or look towards the mirror image location of the target in the antisaccade task and look between two 10° targets in the self-paced saccade task. Only Arabic and Persian participants showed a shorter and directional prosaccade latency towards 5° stimuli against their habitual reading direction. No significant effect of reading direction on antisaccade latency towards the correct directions was found. Chinese readers were found to generate significantly shorter prosaccade latencies and higher antisaccade directional errors compared with Arabic and Persian readers for stimuli appearing at their habitual reading side. The present pilot study provides insights into the effect of reading habits on saccadic eye movements of low-cognitive-demand stimuli and offers a platform for future studies to investigate the relationship between reading habits and eye movement behaviours.