The perception of target motion during smooth pursuit eye movements in the open-loop condition: Characteristics of retinal and extraretinal signals

1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Pola ◽  
Harry J. Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Loop Condition

scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Integration of Visual Motion Signals for Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Monkeys

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2013-2025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie C. Osborne ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Random Walk ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Linear Filter ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Averaging ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

To probe how the brain integrates visual motion signals to guide behavior, we analyzed the smooth pursuit eye movements evoked by target motion with a stochastic component. When each dot of a texture executed an independent random walk such that speed or direction varied across the spatial extent of the target, pursuit variance increased as a function of the variance of visual pattern motion. Noise in either target direction or speed increased the variance of both eye speed and direction, implying a common neural noise source for estimating target speed and direction. Spatial averaging was inefficient for targets with >20 dots. Together these data suggest that pursuit performance is limited by the properties of spatial averaging across a noisy population of sensory neurons rather than across the physical stimulus. When targets executed a spatially uniform random walk in time around a central direction of motion, an optimized linear filter that describes the transformation of target motion into eye motion accounted for ∼50% of the variance in pursuit. Filters had widths of ∼25 ms, much longer than the impulse response of the eye, and filter shape depended on both the range and correlation time of motion signals, suggesting that filters were products of sensory processing. By quantifying the effects of different levels of stimulus noise on pursuit, we have provided rigorous constraints for understanding sensory population decoding. We have shown how temporal and spatial integration of sensory signals converts noisy population responses into precise motor responses.

Single-neuron activity in the dorsomedial frontal cortex during smooth-pursuit eye movements to predictable target motion

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 853-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Heinen ◽  
M. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Supplementary Eye Field ◽  
Dorsomedial Frontal Cortex

AbstractA region of dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC) has been implicated in planning and executing saccadic eye movements; hence it has been referred to as a supplementary eye field (SEF). Recently, activity related to executing smooth-pursuit eye movements has been recorded from the DMFC, and microstimulation here has been shown to evoke smooth eye movements. This report documents neuronal activity present in smooth-pursuit tasks where the predictability of target motion was manipulated. The activity of many neurons in the DMFC reached a peak when a predictable change in target motion occurred. Furthermore, the peak activity of some cells was systematically shifted by manipulating the duration of the target event, indicating that the network these neurons were in could learn the temporal characteristics of new target motion. Finally, the activity of most neurons tested was greater when target motion was predictable than when it was unpredictable. The results suggest that the DMFC participates in planning smooth-pursuit eye movements based on past stimulus history.

scholarly journals Signals That Modulate Gain Control for Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Monkeys

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan R. Carey ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Velocity Signal ◽  
Adaptive Modification ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Internal Gain ◽  
Vor Adaptation

The generation of primate smooth pursuit eye movements involves two processes. One process transforms the direction and speed of target motion into a motor command and the other regulates the strength, or “gain,” of the visual-motor transformation. We have conducted a behavioral analysis to identify the signals that modulate the internal gain of pursuit. To test whether the modulatory signals are related to eye velocity in the orbit or in the world (gaze velocity), we used brief perturbations of target motion to probe the gain of pursuit during tracking conditions that used head rotation to dissociate eye and gaze velocity. We found that the responses to perturbations varied primarily as a function of gaze velocity. To further understand the gaze velocity signals that control internal pursuit gain, we used adaptive modification of the gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) to dissociate physical gaze velocity from the component of gaze velocity that is driven by visual inputs. After VOR adaptation, perturbation responses were altered; the smallest perturbation responses now occurred during tracking conditions that required nonzero physical gaze velocity. However, perturbation responses during tracking conditions that mimicked the modified VOR were still enhanced relative to those obtained during fixation. We conclude that the signals that modulate the internal gain of pursuit are modified by VOR adaptation so that they are rendered intermediate between physical and visually driven gaze velocity. Similar changes in the gaze velocity signal have been reported in the cerebellar floccular complex following adaptive modification of the VOR and could be present in other brain areas that carry putative gaze velocity signals.

Initial tracking conditions modulate the gain of visuo-motor transmission for smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Schwartz ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Moving Target ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Stationary Target ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

AbstractSmooth pursuit eye movements allow primates to keep gaze pointed at small objects moving across stationary surroundings. In monkeys trained to track a small moving target, we have injected brief perturbations of target motion under different initial conditions as probes to read out the state of the visuo-motor pathways that guide pursuit. A large eye movement response was evoked if the perturbation was applied to a moving target the monkey was tracking. A small response was evoked if the same perturbation was applied to a stationary target the monkey was fixating. The gain of the response to the perturbation increased as a function of the initial speed of target motion and as a function of the interval from the onset of target motion to the time of the perturbation. The response to the perturbation also was direction selective. Gain was largest if the perturbation was along the axis of ongoing target motion and smallest if the perturbation was orthogonal to the axis of target motion. We suggest that two parallel sets of visual motion pathways through the extrastriate visual cortex may mediate, respectively, the visuo-motor processing for pursuit and the modulation of the gain of transmission through those pathways.

Postsaccadic Enhancement of Initiation of Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Monkeys

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 1918-1930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Target Position ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Target Velocity ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Motor Pathways ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Velocity

Lisberger, Stephen G. Postsaccadic enhancement of initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 1918–1930, 1998. Step-ramp target motion evokes a characteristic sequence of presaccadic smooth eye movement in the direction of the target ramp, catch-up targets to bring eye position close to the position of the moving target, and postsaccadic eye velocities that nearly match target velocity. I have analyzed this sequence of eye movements in monkeys to reveal a strong postsaccadic enhancement of pursuit eye velocity and to document the conditions that lead to that enhancement. Smooth eye velocity was measured in the last 10 ms before and the first 10 ms after the first saccade evoked by step-ramp target motion. Plots of eye velocity as a function of time after the onset of the target ramp revealed that eye velocity at a given time was much higher if measured after versus before the saccade. Postsaccadic enhancement of pursuit was recorded consistently when the target stepped 3° eccentric on the horizontal axis and moved upward, downward, or away from the position of fixation. To determine whether postsaccadic enhancement of pursuit was invoked by smear of the visual scene during a saccade, I recorded the effect of simulated saccades on the presaccadic eye velocity for step-ramp target motion. The 3° simulated saccade, which consisted of motion of a textured background at 150°/s for 20 ms, failed to cause any enhancement of presaccadic eye velocity. By using a strategically selected set of oblique target steps with horizontal ramp target motion, I found clear enhancement for saccades in all directions, even those that were orthogonal to target motion. When the size of the target step was varied by up to 15° along the horizontal meridian, postsaccadic eye velocity did not depend strongly either on the initial target position or on whether the target moved toward or away from the position of fixation. In contrast, earlier studies and data in this paper show that presaccadic eye velocity is much stronger when the target is close to the center of the visual field and when the target moves toward versus away from the position of fixation. I suggest that postsaccadic enhancement of pursuit reflects activation, by saccades, of a switch that regulates the strength of transmission through the visual-motor pathways for pursuit. Targets can cause strong visual motion signals but still evoke low presaccadic eye velocities if they are ineffective at activating the pursuit system.

Participation of the caudal fastigial nucleus in smooth-pursuit eye movements. I. Neuronal activity

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 2714-2728 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Fuchs ◽  
F. R. Robinson ◽  
A. Straube
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Firing Rate ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Peak Velocity ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Fastigial Nucleus ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Eye Velocity

1. We recorded single-unit activity from neurons of an output of the cerebellum, the fastigial nucleus, in two rhesus macaques while the monkeys tracked small moving targets with their eyes. Many neurons in the caudal part of the fastigial nucleus exhibited a modulation in their discharge rates when smooth-pursuit eye movements were elicited by either sinusoidal or step-ramp motions of a small target. 2. The pursuit direction that elicited the most vigorous modulation in unit firing to sinusoidal target motion could be horizontal, vertical, or oblique. Most often, the preferred direction was in the contralateral and/or downward direction (50 of 69 neurons) or in the ipsilateral and/or upward direction (13 of 69). 3. For units whose preferred smooth-pursuit directions were either contralateral/downward or ipsilateral/upward during sinusoidal pursuit, peak firing as measured by the phase shift of periodic modulation at 0.5-0.8 Hz occurred near the time of peak velocity. The discharge of 80% of the neurons with contralateral/downward preferred directions preceded eye velocity by an average of -27 degrees; thus these neurons discharged maximally during eye acceleration. In contrast, neurons with ipsilateral/upward preferred directions lagged peak velocity by an average of +10.5 degrees and therefore discharged during eye deceleration. 4. The average eye velocity sensitivity for sinusoidal pursuit between 0.5 and 0.8 Hz was 0.83 +/- 0.57 (SD) spikes/s per degrees/s. We also tested 36 units during pursuit at a variety of frequencies in their preferred directions and found that firing rates increased monotonically with peak eye velocity. However, the firing rate saturated at velocities ranging from 20 to 60 degrees/s for different units. 5. When a monkey tracked a step-ramp target motion, three discharge patterns emerged in the 27 units tested. Just over half of the units discharged a burst of spikes that preceded (average lead of 27.4 +/- 17 ms) and lasted throughout the initial third of the eye acceleration; the burst was followed by a subsequent steady firing that continued after the eye had accelerated to its steady velocity. Fewer neurons discharged a burst that began late in the acceleration and was followed by steady firing. Occasional neurons showed only a gradual increase in firing rate during acceleration followed by a steady discharge. 6. Thirty of the 31 fastigial smooth-pursuit units tested also were modulated during sinusoidal yaw and/or pitch oscillations while the animals fixated a spot that rotated with them.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals Predicting and computing 2D target motion for smooth-pursuit eye movements in macaque monkeys

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 384-384
Author(s):  
G. Masson ◽  
J. Fleuriet ◽  
A. Montagnini ◽  
P. Mamassian
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Macaque Monkeys ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements
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