Schedule of Events | Symposia

Exploring Saccade Task Performance in Early-Middle-Aged Adults with Hypertension

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Kelsey Roberts¹ (kelsey.roberts@uga.edu), Audrey Beradi¹, Ling-Yu Huang², Michelle Altvater³, Emily Dumas¹, Brooke Jackson¹, Qun Zhao¹, Nathan Yanasak³, Catherine Davis³, Xiaoling Wang³, Shaoyong Su³, Jennifer McDowell¹; ¹University of Georgia, ²Beth-Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, ³Augusta University Medical College of Georgia

Hypertension is a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease and is associated with cognitive decline. The extent to which this affects neurocognition in middle adulthood remains unclear. Saccade tasks can reliably measure basic behavior and neurocognitive performance and are understudied in hypertensive populations. Prosaccade tasks measure basic, reflex-like behaviors where participants direct their gaze to the stimulus. Antisaccade tasks measure voluntary eye movements where participants direct their gaze to the mirrored location of a stimulus. This study evaluated pro and antisaccade performance in early-middle-aged adults with low (<84.99mmHg), medium (>85mmHg, <95.99mmHg), and high (>96mmHg) levels of mean arterial blood pressure (MAP). Group comparisons were made on saccade latency and percent correct, as well as models of saccadic main sequences (the relationship between amplitude and peak velocity) and speed-accuracy trade-offs (SATO). Direct comparisons revealed significantly slower latencies for the high MAP group than the low group and no differences in percent correct. No significant group differences were found in the main sequence or SATO models. Nonsignificant trends showed lower peak velocity in main sequence models and slower trade-off rates in SATO models in the high MAP group. Collectively, these results show that the high MAP group took longer to reach the same level of performance as the low MAP group, alluding to an association between cognitive performance and blood pressure in early middle-aged adults. Results could be used to support measures of early detection and intervention of hypertension. Future studies could compare these results with other cognitive and neuroanatomical measures.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control