Spontaneous saccades in young awake monkey.

The aim of this study is to compare the static and dynamic characteristics of young monkey's saccades with adult monkey's. The experiments were carried out on one young monkey of 80-90 days of life and on three adult monkeys. The eye movements were detected by magnetic field technique, in the dark and in the light. A soft cup was used for painless fixation of young animal's head. The analysis of eye movements was done by a PDP 11/73. The results show that the spatio-temporal pattern of eye movements is prevalently vertical or slightly oblique in young monkey, contrary it is prevalently horizontal or slightly oblique in the adult: besides the amplitudes are smaller and the velocities are slower in the adult. From these preliminary results we may think that maturation modifies the static and dynamic characteristics of eye movements.