Suppression of reflexive saccades in younger and older adults: Age comparisons on an antisaccade task

Inhibitory control of prepotent responses has been examined by using the an tisaccade task, during which a reflexive saccade toward a peripheral onset must be suppressed before an eye movement in the opposite direction from th e onset can be executed. In the present experiments, we sought to determine whether older and younger adults would perform similarly on this task. Old er adults had a harder time suppressing their reflexive responses, as measu red by an increase in the proportion of saccade direction errors. Despite a n age-related decline in saccade direction accuracy, the increase in saccad e latency associated with the antisaccade condition was the same for both y ounger and older adults. These results support the view that the effectiven ess of inhibitory control declines with age (Hasher & Zacks, 1988; Hasher, Zacks, & May, 1999).