ORGANICITY AND MENTAL RETARDATION: ANALYSIS OF EYE AND HEAD MOVEMENTS

Abstract
Eye and head movements of 10 mentally retarded (MR) children and 10 normal school children were recorded. Each was directed to look to 1 side or the other in response to verbal commands, to gestural directions or to the appearance of illuminated fixation targets. Large gaze movements of MR subjects were accompanied by head movements more frequently than those of the normal subjects. For similar gaze deviations, head movements of MR subjects tended to be larger than those of normal subjects. Head movements of normal subjects rarely began before eye movement, but those of MR subjects often did so. This abnormal MR eye-head movement pattern was more frequent in response to verbal or gestural commands than in responses elicited by illumination of fixation targets.

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