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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Stimulus conditions that enhance anticipatory slow eye movements.

Anticipatory slow eye movements are predictive responses that occur prior to both ramp and step target motions. These low velocity eye movements are enhanced and can be studied in isolation by transient target disappearance before ramp motion onset. Slow eye velocities also decrease prior to the termination of target motion. In experiments using a bistable apparent motion stimulus, it was found that perceived motion is a stimulus for anticipatory slow eye movements. This relationship between motion perception and anticipatory slow eye movements can explain previously noted differences between these predictive movements and the predictive component of smooth pursuit.

Adult↗

Fetal eye movements.

Since 1981, when eye movements of the human fetus were first reported, the study of fetal eye movements has increased, mainly focusing on the ontogenesis of eye movements and as one parameter of behavioral states. Using real-time ultrasound, fetal eye movements can be clearly observed from 14 weeks of gestational age. Fetal eye movements may be described in terms of their pattern, frequency and incidence of periods containing eye movements and no eye movements. Furthermore, the relationship of eye movements to other behaviors may be used to give information on the integration of central nervous system function. A picture of normal fetal eye movements can be constructed and used to detect abnormalities in eye movements which can indicate underlying abnormalities of the central nervous system. This paper concludes that, although in its early stages, the study of fetal eye movements holds promise for a greater understanding of brain development and the assessment of the condition of the fetus.

Journal Article↗

Task-specific conjugate lateral eye movements.

Conjugate lateral eye movements induced by task-specific reflective thought were examined in 10 dextral men. Verbal and spatial stimuli designed to activate reflective thought in the left (verbal) and right (spatial) cerebral hemispheres of the brain were presented tachistoscopically in a darkened environment. Eye movements during reflective thought were monitored and scored using an infrared eye-tracking device. Reflective thought induced by the spatial task produced significantly more leftward conjugate lateral eye movement. The verbal task tended to produce more rightward and upward movements. The results are viewed as consistent with a task-specific brain-hemispheric activation model of contralateral conjugate eye movements during reflective thought.

Adult↗

Studies of parkinsonian movement: 1. Programming and execution of eye movements.

Rapid voluntary eye movements in bradykinetic parkinsonian patients and normal subjects were recorded when the movement was executed with visual feedback (closed-loop mode) and in darkness without visual feedback (open-loop mode). The patients had a tendency to generate abnormal saccades consisting of multiple small steps (multiple step saccade), both in the closed-loop and open-loop mode. They were, however, also capable of generating large amplitude saccades. The amplitude-velocity relation of both the small step saccades and the large saccades was normal. The presence of multiple step saccades in the open loop mode suggests that the patients used internal rather than external (visual) feedback to compare the actual eye position with the desired (programmed) eye position and the program for rapid movement is normal but its execution is defective. Horizontal eye movements were also recorded when the head was stationary with a target moving sinusoidally, and when the target was stationary with the head rotated sinusoidally. In both cases the amplitude of the eye movement relative to the head was about 50 degrees. The patients were observed to generate irregular, saccadic eye movements in pursuit of a slowly moving target when the head was stationary, but their eyes could follow a stationary target smoothly when their eyes could follow a stationary target smoothly when their head was moved sinusoidally. These findings suggest that the neuronal circuitry in the paramedian pontine reticular formation, responsible for the final integration of different types of eye movements, is physiologically normal in Parkinsonism.

Adult↗

Discharges of superior colliculus neurons during head and eye movements of the alert cat.

452 single neurons from the superior colliculus were recorded in awake and non-paralysed cats. 75 neurons were obtained from cats with unrestrained horizontal head movements. 228 neurons remained unaffected by saccadic eye movements. Eye movement related discharge followed the onset of saccades in 156 neurons either only in the presence of a visual pattern (92 neurons) or in darkness, too (64 neurons). The latter reaction type probably depends on eye muscle afferents. In 48 neurons eye movements related activity preceded the onset of eye movements. 12 neurons eye movement related activity preceded the onset of eye movements. 12 neurons fired in synchrony with eye movements of any direction (type I). 30 neurons were excited during contralaterally directed eye versions within or into the contralateral head related hemifield. They were inhibited when the eyes moved within or into the ipsilateral head related hemifield (type II). 6 neurons with constant maintained activity during fixation were inhibited by ipsilaterally directed saccades, but remained unaffected by contralateral eye movements. Head movement related discharge followed the onset of head movements in 20 neurons only in presence of a visual pattern and also in darkness in 6 neurons. Ipsilateral head movements or postures strongly suppressed maintained activity and visual responsiveness of some neurons. 15 neurons discharged in synchrony with and prior to contralateral head movements. Ipsilateral head movements inhibited these neurons. Activation or inhibition were usually related to movement and to posture, exceptionally to movement or to posture. Electrical stimulation of recording sites of these neurons through the recording microelectrode elicits contralateral head movements.

Animals↗

Effects of diphenhydramine on human eye movements.

Peak saccadic eye movement velocity (SEV) and average smooth pursuit gain (SP) are reduced in a dose-dependent manner by diazepam and provide reliable, quantitative measures of benzodiazepine agonist effects. To evaluate the specificity of these eye movement effects for agents acting at the central GABA-benzodiazepine receptor complex and the role of sedation in benzodiazepine effects, we studied eye movement effects of diphenhydramine, a sedating drug which does not act at the GABA-benzodiazepine receptor complex. Ten healthy males, aged 19-28 years, with no history of axis I psychiatric disorders or substance abuse, received 50 mg/70 kg intravenous diphenhydramine or a similar volume of saline on separate days 1 week apart. SEV, saccade latency and accuracy, SP, self-rated sedation, and short-term memory were assessed at baseline and at 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 min after drug administration. Compared with placebo, diphenhydramine produced significant SEV slowing, and increases in saccade latency and self-rated sedation. There was no significant effect of diphenhydramine on smooth pursuit gain, saccade accuracy, or short-term memory. These results suggest that, like diazepam, diphenhydramine causes sedation, SEV slowing, and an increase in saccade latency. Since the degree of diphenhydramine-induced sedation was not correlated with changes in SEV or saccade latency, slowing of saccadic eye movements is unlikely to be attributable to sedation alone. Unlike diazepam, diphenhydramine does not impair smooth pursuit gain, saccadic accuracy, or memory. Different neurotransmitter systems may influence the neural pathways involved in SEV and smooth pursuit again.

Adult↗

The development of human fetal eye movement patterns.

The eye can be visualized ultrasonically in more than 90 percent of fetuses 16 through 42 weeks of gestational age. Slow eye movements are present by 16 weeks. Rapid eye movements begin at 23 weeks and become more frequent between 24 and 35 weeks. Eye inactivity becomes more common after 36 weeks and is associated with sustained diaphragmatic excursions implying a "quiet sleep" state. Pathologic eye movements were seen in four fetuses with dysmorphic brain structure.

Brain↗

Heavy NP shift is the parser's last resort: Evidence from eye movements.

Two eye movement experiments explored the roles of verbal subcategorization possibilities and transitivity biases in the processing of heavy NP shift sentences in which the verb's direct object appears to the right of a post-verbal phrase. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences in which a prepositional phrase immediately followed the verb, which was either obligatorily transitive or had a high transitivity bias (e.g., Jack praised/watched from the stands his daughter's attempt to shoot a basket). Experiment 2 compared unshifted sentences to sentences in which an adverb intervened between the verb and its object, and obligatorily transitive verbs to optionally transitive verbs with widely varying transitivity biases. In both experiments, evidence of processing difficulty appeared on the material that intervened between the verb and its object when the verb was obligatorily transitive, and on the shifted direct object when the verb was optionally transitive, regardless of transitivity bias. We conclude that the parser adopts the heavy NP shift analysis only when it is forced to by the grammar, which we interpret in terms of a preference for immediate incremental interpretation.

Journal Article↗

The role of the cerebellum in voluntary eye movements.

In general the cerebellum is crucial for the control but not the initiation of movement. Voluntary eye movements are particularly useful for investigating the specific mechanisms underlying cerebellar control because they are precise and their brain-stem circuitry is already well understood. Here we describe single-unit and inactivation data showing that the posterior vermis and the caudal fastigial nucleus, to which it projects, provide a signal during horizontal saccades to make them fast, accurate, and consistent. The caudal fastigial nucleus also is necessary for the recovery of saccadic accuracy after actual or simulated neural or muscular damage causes horizontal saccades to be dysmetric. Saccade-related activity in the interpositus nucleus is related to vertical saccades. Both the caudal fastigial nucleus and the flocculus/paraflocculus are necessary for the normal smooth eye movements that pursue a small moving spot. By using eye movements, we have begun to uncover basic principles that give us insight into how the cerebellum may control movement in general.

Animals↗

Context-dependent adaptation of visually-guided arm movements and vestibular eye movements: role of the cerebellum.

Accurate motor control requires adaptive processes that correct for gradual and rapid perturbations in the properties of the controlled object. The ability to quickly switch between different movement synergies using sensory cues, referred to as context-dependent adaptation, is a subject of considerable interest at present. The potential function of the cerebellum in context-dependent adaptation remains uncertain, but the data reviewed below suggest that it may play a fundamental role in this process.

Animals↗

Frame of reference transformations in motion perception during smooth pursuit eye movements.

Smooth pursuit eye movements change the retinal image velocity of objects in the visual field. In order to change from a retinocentric frame of reference into a head-centric one, the visual system has to take the eye movements into account. Studies on motion perception during smooth pursuit eye movements have measured either perceived speed or perceived direction during smooth pursuit to investigate this frame of reference transformation, but never both at the same time. We devised a new velocity matching task, in which participants matched both perceived speed and direction during fixation to that during pursuit. In Experiment 1, the velocity matches were determined for a range of stimulus directions, with the head-centric stimulus speed kept constant. In Experiment 2, the retinal stimulus speed was kept approximately constant, with the same range of stimulus directions. In both experiments, the velocity matches for all directions were shifted against the pursuit direction, suggesting an incomplete transformation of the frame of reference. The degree of compensation was approximately constant across stimulus direction. We fitted the classical linear model, the model of Turano and Massof (2001) and that of Freeman (2001) to the velocity matches. The model of Turano and Massof fitted the velocity matches best, but the differences between de model fits were quite small. Evaluation of the models and comparison to a few alternatives suggests that further specification of the potential effect of retinal image characteristics on the eye movement signal is needed.

Adult↗

Shared decision signal explains performance and timing of pursuit and saccadic eye movements.

Each voluntary eye movement provides physical evidence of a visuomotor choice about where and when to look. Primates choose visual targets with two types of voluntary eye movements, pursuit and saccades, although the exact mechanism underlying their coordination remains unknown. Are pursuit and saccades guided by the same decision signal? The present study compares pursuit and saccadic choices using techniques borrowed from psychophysics and models of response time. Human observers performed a luminance discrimination task and indicated their choices with eye movements. Because the stimuli moved horizontally and were offset vertically, subjects' tracking responses consisted of combinations of both pursuit and saccadic eye movements. For each of two signal strengths, we constructed speed-accuracy curves for pursuit and saccades. We found that speed-accuracy curves for pursuit and saccades have the same shape, but are time-shifted with respect to one another. We argue that this pattern occurs because pursuit and saccades share a decision signal, but utilize different response thresholds and are subject to different motor processing delays.

Adult↗