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D S Zee

Publications and source records attributed to D S Zee.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Oculomotor function in the rhesus monkey after deafferentation of the extraocular muscles.

The function of extraocular muscle proprioception in the control of eye movements remains uncertain. In this study, we examined the effect of bilateral proprioceptive deafferentation of the extraocular muscles on eye movements in two rhesus monkeys. Before and after deafferentation, we analyzed baseline ocular alignment, saccades, pursuit, and vestibular eye movements. We also examined visually mediated adaptation of ocular alignment, saccades, and pursuit. Deafferentation of the eye muscles did not affect baseline ocular motor control, either acutely or over a 5-week period of study. Furthermore, visually mediated adaptation of the eye movement subtypes was also unaffected by deafferentation. These results suggest that ocular proprioception in primates is not used in the immediate, on-line control of eye movements and does not interact with visual cues in the adaptive modification of ocular motor function. We conclude that the efferent command (efference copy) provides sufficient information about eye kinematics to the brain for accurate eye movement control in normal monkeys, and that this information is modified by visual feedback independently of proprioception. We hypothesize that proprioception may be used to calibrate the efference copy during development and in response to perturbations by signaling potential mismatches between eye movement information derived from the efferent command and the actual motion of the eye transduced by the proprioceptive organs.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Adaptive control of pursuit, vergence and eye torsion in humans: basic and clinical implications.

Recent research from our laboratory has been directed at understanding the range of capabilities for adaptive control of eye movements in normal human subjects. For smooth pursuit, different motor responses to the same sensory stimulus (horizontal target motion) can be learned, stored and gated in or out, according to context (vertical eye position). The dynamic properties of the 'open-loop' portion of horizontal, disparity-driven vergence eye movements are under adaptive control. Eye torsion is also subject to adaptive control, including torsional 'phoria adaptation' and cross-coupling of torsion into the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Finally, lesions of the oculomotor vermis in monkeys produce disordered binocular ocular motor function: 'esodeviations' in the absence of disparity cues, and decreased adaptation of the horizontal phoria to a sustained disparity induced by wearing a horizontal prism in front of one eye.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Oculomotor abnormalities in boys with tourette syndrome with and without ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: To assess saccadic eye movements in boys with Tourette syndrome (TS) with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), comparing performance with that of an age-matched group of male controls. METHOD: Three different saccade tasks (prosaccades, antisaccades, and memory-guided saccades) were used to examine functions necessary for the planning and execution of eye movements, including motor response preparation, response inhibition, and working memory. The study included 14 boys with TS without ADHD (TS-only), 11 boys with TS and ADHD (TS+ADHD), and 10 male controls. RESULTS: Latency of prosaccades was prolonged in boys with TS (both with and without ADHD) compared with controls. Variability in prosaccade latency was greater in the groups of boys with TS+ADHD compared with both the TS-only and control groups. Response inhibition errors on both the antisaccade task (directional errors) and memory-guided saccade task (anticipatory errors) were increased in boys with TS+ADHD compared with those with TS-only. There were no significant differences among the three groups in accuracy of memory-guided saccades. CONCLUSIONS: Oculomotor findings suggest that TS is associated with delay in initiation of motor response as evidenced by excessive latency on prosaccades. Signs of impaired response inhibition and variability in motor response appear to be associated with the presence of ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

Three-dimensional Hess screen test with binocular dual search coils in a three-field magnetic system.

PURPOSE: To establish an objective Hess screen test that allows a simultaneous and binocular analysis of all three axes of eye rotation. METHODS: In orthotropic and strabismic human subjects, both eyes were recorded with dual scleral search coils in a three-field magnetic system. Before mounting the search coil annuli on the eyes, the voltage offsets of each channel and the relative magnitudes of the three magnetic fields were determined. For calibration, subjects were only required to fix monocularly on a single reference target. During fixation of targets on the Hess screen by the uncovered eye, the three-dimensional eye position of both the occluded and the viewing eye was simultaneously measured. RESULTS: For clinical interpretation, an easy to understand graphical description of the three-dimensional Hess screen test was developed. Positions of orthotropic and strabismic eyes tended to follow Listing's law, which in both eyes allowed the determination of the primary position, that is, the position of gaze from which pure horizontal and pure vertical movements do not lead to an ocular rotation about the line-of-sight. To a first approximation, the location of primary position is a result of the summation of the individual rotation axes of the six extraocular muscles and thus can be used to infer which muscle is paretic. CONCLUSIONS: The three-dimensional Hess screen test with binocular dual search coils in a three-field magnetic system is an objective method to assess the ocular alignment in three dimensions with high precision. From these recordings, the clinician can relate deviations of primary position to specific eye muscle palsies.

Algorithms↗

Adaptive changes in dynamic properties of human disparity-induced vergence.

PURPOSE: Vergence eye movements undergo adaptive recalibration in response to a training stimulus in which the initial disparity is changed just after vergence begins (the double-step paradigm). In the present study the changes in the dynamic properties of convergence, speed and acceleration, were examined by using this double-step paradigm, before and after adaptation. METHODS: Four normal subjects participated. Three-dimensional visual stimuli were provided by a head-mounted display with two liquid crystal diode (LCD) panels. To induce adaptation, a double step of disparity was used: an initial step from distances of 2 to 1 m was followed by a second step to distances of 0.7 m ("increasing paradigm") or 1.4 m ("decreasing paradigm") after a constant period of 0.2 seconds. The dynamic properties of vergence were compared before and after 30 minutes of training with these paradigms. RESULTS: Peak velocity of convergence became significantly greater (increasing paradigm) or smaller (decreasing paradigm) after 30 minutes' training. Changes in the dynamic properties of convergence were also obvious in phase-plane (velocity versus position) and main sequence (peak velocity versus amplitude) plots. Further analysis revealed that adaptive increases in vergence velocity were accomplished by an increase in the duration of the acceleration period, whereas adaptive decreases were induced by a decrease in the maximum value of acceleration. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of change in the dynamic characteristics of vergence after adaptation was similar to that of saccades and the initiation of pursuit eye movements, suggesting common neural mechanisms for adaptive changes in the open-loop control of eye movements.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Translational vestibulo-ocular reflex evoked by a "head heave" stimulus.

The gain and symmetry of vestibulo-ocular reflexes for high-frequency, high-acceleration movements of the head are altered following unilateral vestibular lesions. These changes have been well characterized for rotational head movements (thrusts), and provide reliable markers of dysfunction in individual semicircular canals. Alterations in the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) evoked by lateral, whole-body translations have also been observed. In an approach directed at the development of a bedside test of otolith function, we have recorded (scleral search coil) the VOR evoked by brief, high-acceleration lateral translations (heaves). We delivered these stimuli manually and also developed a "head sled" device that minimizes any rotational contaminating component of the stimulus. Our geometrical analysis of the stimuli enables us to take into account the translational and rotational components of the movement, and to calculate an ideal response required for stabilization of images on the fovea at different fixation distances. We observed a tracking response (visually assisted VOR) that was close to ideal for image stabilization when these methods were used to analyze responses to slow, low-amplitude lateral translations of the head. When applied to rapid, high-acceleration (0.5 g) translations, the VOR was found to be less than compensatory in subjects with normal vestibular function. In a patient with unilateral vestibular hypofunction following intratympanic gentamicin injections, both the rotational and the translational VOR were asymmetric. Responses for translations toward the treated side had lower gain than those for translations toward the normal side. These findings provide a basis for further development of this technique as a clinical test and as a method for quantitative evaluation of otolith function.

Adult↗

[Motor and sensory responses in fusion of vertical disparities in different convergence places].

UNLABELLED: To study motor and sensory responses in vertical fusion at different angles of horizontal vergence in normal humans. METHODS: The study included 12 normal subjects. A cross (+) extending 3.4 degrees x3.2 degrees was presented dichoptically. Vertical disparity was introduced by changing the vertical position of the cross in front of one eye. The disparity was incremented by 0.08 degrees every 8 s. Distance viewing was tested with 1 degrees of convergence demand, near vision with 6-15 degrees convergence demand. Eye movements were recorded using three-axis search coils. RESULTS: Vertical fusion capability was larger at near vision than at distance in 9 of 12 subjects. For the entire group, total vertical fusion capability (motor plus sensory response) differed between distance (mean 1.68 degrees ) and near (mean 2.39 degrees ). The motor component differed significantly between distance (mean 1.42 degrees ) and near (mean 2.13 degrees ). No difference in the sensory component was seen between distance (mean 0.26 degrees ) and near (mean 0.27 degrees ). CONCLUSIONS: Vertical fusion capability increases with convergence. This increase is mainly due to an increase of the motor response.

Accommodation, Ocular↗

Bedside vestibular examination.

A careful neuro-otologic examination is important in the diagnosis of vestibular disorders. This article reviews the bedside examination, beginning with the underlying physiologic principles. Techniques for testing static and dynamic vestibulo-ocular and vestibulospinal function are summarized. Finally, the use of specific provocative maneuvers is described.

Eye Movements↗

Evidence of normal cerebellar control of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in children with high-functioning autism.

The effect of "tilt-suppression" on post-rotatory vestibular nystagmus was investigated to assess the function of the caudal cerebellar vermis (lobules IX and X, or nodulus and uvula) in 13 school-age children with high-functioning autism (HFA) and 10 normal controls. Tilt-suppression of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) refers to the decreasing of the duration of post-rotatory vestibular nystagmus that occurs when the head is moved out of the plane in which it was located during the previous sustained constant-velocity rotation. The participant is rotated in a vestibular chair with the head upright and then the head is tilted forward just after the chair stops rotating. Such tilt-suppression is impaired with lesions of the cerebellar nodulus and portions of the uvula. Results show that children with HFA have normal post-rotatory nystasmus with the head upright and normal attenuation of post-rotatory nystagmus induced by head tilt. These behavioral findings suggest that lobules IX and X of the cerebellum are spared in high-functioning autism.

Adolescent↗

Three-dimensional kinematics of ocular drift in humans with cerebellar atrophy.

One of the signs of the cerebellar ocular motor syndrome is the inability to maintain horizontal and vertical fixation. Typically, in the presence of cerebellar atrophy, the eyes show horizontal gaze-evoked and vertical downbeat nystagmus. We investigated whether or not the cerebellar ocular motor syndrome also includes a torsional drift and, specifically, if it is independent from the drift in the horizontal-vertical plane. The existence of such a torsional drift would suggest that the cerebellum is critically involved in maintaining the eyes in Listing's plane. Eighteen patients with cerebellar atrophy (diagnosis confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging) were tested and compared with a group of normal subjects. Three-dimensional eye movements (horizontal, vertical, and torsional) during attempted fixations of targets at different horizontal and vertical eccentricities were recorded by dual search coils in a three-field magnetic frame. The overall ocular drift was composed of an upward drift that increased during lateral gaze, a horizontal centripetal drift that appeared during lateral gaze, and a torsional drift that depended on horizontal eye position. The vertical drift consisted of two subcomponents: a vertical gaze-evoked drift and a constant vertical velocity bias. The increase of upward drift velocity with eccentric horizontal gaze was caused by an increase of the vertical velocity bias; this component did not comply with Listing's law. The horizontal-eye-position-dependent torsional drift was intorsional in abduction and extorsional in adduction, which led to an additional violation of Listing's law. The existence of torsional drift that is eye-position-dependent suggests that the cerebellum is critically involved in the implementation of Listing's law, perhaps by mapping a tonic torsional signal that depends on the direction of the line of sight. The magnitude of this signal might reflect the difference in torsional eye position between the torsional resting position determined by the mechanics of the eye plant and the torsional position required by Listing's law.

Adult↗

Effects of lesions of the oculomotor cerebellar vermis on eye movements in primate: smooth pursuit.

We studied the effects on smooth pursuit eye movements of ablation of the dorsal cerebellar vermis (lesions centered on lobules VI and VII) in three monkeys in which the cerebellar nuclei were spared. Following the lesion the latencies to pursuit initiation were unchanged. Monkeys showed a small decrease (up to 15%) in gain during triangular-wave tracking. More striking were changes in the dynamic properties of pursuit as determined in the open-loop period (the 1st 100 ms) of smooth tracking. Changes included a decrease in peak eye acceleration (e.g., in one monkey from approximately 650 degrees /s(2), prelesion to approximately 220-380 degrees /s(2), postlesion) and a decrease in the velocity at the end of the open-loop period [e.g., in another monkey from a gain (eye velocity/target velocity at 100 ms of tracking) of 0.93, prelesion to 0.53, postlesion]. In individual monkeys, the pattern of deficits in the open-loop period of pursuit was usually comparable to that of saccades, especially when comparing the changes in the acceleration of pursuit to the changes in the velocity of saccades. These findings support the hypothesis that saccades and the open-loop period of pursuit are controlled by the cerebellar vermis in an analogous way. Saccades could be generated by eye velocity commands to bring the eyes to a certain position and pursuit by eye acceleration commands to bring the eyes toward a certain velocity. On the other hand, changes in gain during triangular-wave tracking did not correlate with either the saccade or the open-loop pursuit deficits, implying different contributions of the oculomotor vermis to the open loop and to the sustained portions of pursuit tracking. Finally, in a pursuit adaptation paradigm (x0.5 or x2, calling for a halving or doubling of eye velocity, respectively) intact animals could adaptively adjust eye acceleration in the open-loop period. The main pattern of change was a decrease in peak acceleration for x0.5 training and an increase in the duration of peak acceleration for x2 training. Following the lesion in the oculomotor vermis, this adaptive capability was impaired. In conclusion, as for saccades, the oculomotor vermis plays a critical role both in the immediate on-line and in the short-term adaptive control of pursuit.

Acceleration↗

Saccades from torsional offset positions back to listing's plane.

Rapid eye movements include saccades and quick phases of nystagmus and may have components around all three axes of ocular rotation: horizontal, vertical, and torsional. In this study, we recorded horizontal, vertical, and torsional eye movements in normal subjects with their heads upright and stationary. We asked how the eyes are brought back to Listing's plane after they are displaced from it. We found that torsional offsets, induced with a rotating optokinetic disk oriented perpendicular to the subject's straight ahead, were corrected during both horizontal and vertical voluntary saccades. Thus three-dimensional errors are synchronously reduced during saccades. The speed of the torsional correction was much faster than could be accounted for by passive mechanical forces. During vertical saccades, the peak torsional velocity decreased and the time of peak torsional velocity was delayed, as the amplitude of vertical saccades increased. In contrast, there was no consistent reduction of torsional velocity or change in time of peak torsional velocity with an increase in the amplitude of horizontal saccades. These findings suggest that 1) the correction of stimulus-induced torsion is neurally commanded and 2) there is cross-coupling between the torsional and vertical but not between the torsional and horizontal saccade generating systems. This latter dichotomy may reflect the fact that vertical and torsional rapid eye movements are generated by common premotor circuits located in the rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (riMLF). When horizontal or vertical saccade duration was relatively short, the torsional offset was not completely corrected during the primary saccade, indicating that although the saccade itself is three-dimensional, saccade duration is determined by the error in the horizontal or the vertical, but not by the error in the torsional component.

Adult↗

Rotation of Listing's plane with convergence: independence from eye position.

PURPOSE: To determine whether asymmetrical vergence results in a rotation of Listing's plane independent of vergence-associated changes of eye position in the orbit. METHODS: Six normal subjects were required to fixate on a 3x3 array (40 degrees on a side) of light-emitting diodes arranged on a flat screen 124 cm from the subject. Disparity-induced vergence was elicited with a horizontal Fresnel prism (30 cm/m, approximately 17 degrees) placed in front of one eye. In four subjects accommodative vergence (10 degrees to 15 degrees) was produced by placing a minus spherical lens in front of one eye while the other eye was covered. Eye position was measured binocularly using three-axis search coils. Control data were collected without prisms during monocular and binocular viewing. For all data a planar regression was used to fit torsional eye position as a function of horizontal and vertical position to calculate the horizontal and vertical primary positions that define the orientation of Listing's plane. RESULTS: In the prism experiment, the horizontal primary position of the eye not wearing the prism rotated temporally by 3.9 degrees +/-1.7 degrees compared with the both eyes viewing control condition. The rotation of the prism eye was in a similar range (3.4 degrees +/-2.0 degrees). With accommodation, the horizontal primary position of the viewing eye rotated temporally by 4.4 degrees +/-1.4 degrees compared with the monocular viewing control. In both the accommodation and the prism paradigms there was usually a rotation of vertical primary position downward. CONCLUSIONS: Vergence-induced changes in Listing's plane can be independent of changes in orbital position associated with vergence. This finding supports a role for changes in central innervation in the elaboration of Listing's law.

Accommodation, Ocular↗

Effect of sustained cyclovergence on eye alignment: rapid torsional phoria adaptation.

PURPOSE: To describe adaptive changes in torsional alignment that follow sustained cyclovergence in healthy humans. METHODS: Eye movements were recorded binocularly from four healthy subjects using dual-coil scleral annuli. Cyclovergence movements were evoked over periods of 30 to 150 seconds using a stereoscopic display, presenting gratings of lines arranged horizontally, vertically, or at 45 degrees, subtending angles of up to 48 degrees. In- and excyclodisparities of 5 degrees were introduced and removed in a single-step fashion. After stimulation, the time course and magnitude of the decay in cyclovergence was compared with the subject either in darkness or viewing a baseline stimulus of zero cyclodisparity. RESULTS: As reported previously, the cyclovergence response to incyclodisparities was greater than to excyclodisparities. After sustained excyclovergence, however, in all subjects and in response to all orientations of the gratings, the decay in darkness was incomplete, implying an adaptive change in torsional alignment. In response to the horizontal gratings, for incyclovergence there was also an incomplete decay in darkness but to a lesser degree than in response to excyclovergence, and in only three of four subjects. The incyclovergence evoked by the oblique and vertical gratings was of small magnitude, and its decay was unaffected by the presence or absence of a visual stimulus. CONCLUSIONS: After sustained cyclovergence, its decay in the absence of a visual stimulus may be incomplete. The residual component may be interpreted, by analogy with horizontal and vertical vergence, as reflecting so-called phoria adaptation for torsional alignment.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Context-specific adaptation of pursuit initiation in humans.

PURPOSE: To determine if multiple states for the initiation of pursuit, as assessed by acceleration in the "open-loop" period, can be learned and gated by context. METHODS: Four normal subjects were studied. A modified step-ramp paradigm for horizontal pursuit was used to induce adaptation. In an increasing paradigm, target velocity doubled 230 msec after onset; in a decreasing paradigm, it was halved. In the first experiment, vertical eye position (+/-5 degrees ) was used as the context cue, and the training paradigm (increasing or decreasing) changed with vertical eye position. In the second experiment, with vertical position constant, when the target was red, training was decreasing, and when green, increasing. The average eye acceleration in the first 100 msec of tracking was the index of open-loop pursuit performance. RESULTS: With vertical position as the cue, pursuit adaptation differed between up and down gaze. In some cases, the direction of adaptation was in exact accord with the training stimuli. In others, acceleration increased or decreased for both up and down gaze but always in correct relative proportion to the training stimuli. In contrast, multiple adaptive states were not induced with color as the cue. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple values for the relationship between the average eye acceleration during the initiation of pursuit and target velocity could be learned and gated by context. Vertical position was an effective contextual cue but not target color, implying that useful contextual cues must be similar to those occurring naturally, for example, orbital position with eye muscle weakness.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Adaptation of the phase of the human linear vestibulo-ocular reflex (LVOR) and effects on the oculomotor neural integrator.

The phase of the translational linear VOR (LVOR) can be adaptively modified by exposure to a visual-vestibular mismatch. We extend here our earlier work on LVOR phase adaptation, and discuss the role of the oculomotor neural integrator. Ten subjects were oscillated laterally at 0.5 Hz, 0.3 g peak acceleration, while sitting upright on a linear sled. LVOR was assessed before and after adaptation with subjects tracking the remembered location of a target at 1 m in the dark. Phase and gain were measured by fitting sine waves to the desaccaded eye movements, and comparing sled and eye position. To adapt LVOR phase, the subject viewed a computer-generated stereoscopic visual display, at a virtual distance of 1 m, that moved so as to require either a phase lead or a phase lag of 53 deg. Adaptation lasted 20 min, during which subjects were oscillated at 0.5 Hz/0.3 g. Four of five subjects produced an adaptive change in the lag condition (range 4-45 deg), and each of five produced a change in the lead condition (range 19-56 deg), as requested. Changes in drift on eccentric gaze suggest that the oculomotor velocity-to-position integrator may be involved in the phase changes.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Dynamics of the human linear vestibulo-ocular reflex at medium frequency and modification by short-term training.

We study here the effect of a short-term training paradigm on the gain and phase of the human translational VOR (the linear VOR: LVOR). Subjects were exposed to lateral sinusoidal translations on a sled, at 0.5 Hz, 0.3 g peak acceleration. With subjects tracking a remembered target at 1.2 m, the LVOR (slow-phase) under these conditions typically has a phase lead or lag, and a gain that falls short of compensatory. To induce short-term adaptation (training), we presented an earth-fixed visual scene at 1.2 m during sinusoidal translation (x 1 viewing) for 20 minutes, so as to drive the LVOR toward compensatory phase and gain. We examined both the slow-phase and the saccadic responses to these stimuli. Testing after training showed changes in slow-component gain and phase which were mostly but not always in the compensatory direction. These changes were more consistent in naive subjects than in subjects who had previous LVOR experience. Changes in gain were seen with step as well as sinusoidal test stimuli; gain changes were not correlated with vergence changes. There was a strong correlation between gain changes and phase changes across subjects. Fast phases (catch-up saccades) formed a large component of the LVOR under our testing conditions (approximately 30% of the changes in gain but not in phase due to training.

Adaptation, Physiological↗