Gravity Modulates Listing's Plane Orientation During Both Pursuit and Saccades

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 1340-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard J.M. Hess ◽  
Dora E. Angelaki
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Listing's Plane ◽  
Dimensional Distribution ◽  
Listing’S Plane

Previous studies have shown that the spatial organization of all eye orientations during visually guided saccadic eye movements (Listing's plane) varies systematically as a function of static and dynamic head orientation in space. Here we tested if a similar organization also applies to the spatial orientation of eye positions during smooth pursuit eye movements. Specifically, we characterized the three-dimensional distribution of eye positions during horizontal and vertical pursuit (0.1 Hz, ±15° and 0.5 Hz, ±8°) at different eccentricities and elevations while rhesus monkeys were sitting upright or being statically tilted in different roll and pitch positions. We found that the spatial organization of eye positions during smooth pursuit depends on static orientation in space, similarly as during visually guided saccades and fixations. In support of recent modeling studies, these results are consistent with a role of gravity on defining the parameters of Listing's law.

Central Positional Nystagmus Simulated by a Mathematical Ocular Motor Model of Otolith-Dependent Modification of Listing's Plane

2001 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 1546-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Glasauer ◽  
M. Dieterich ◽  
Th. Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Position Control ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Head Tilt ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Positional Nystagmus ◽  
Listing's Plane ◽  
Head Positions ◽  
Listing’S Plane

To find an explanation of the mechanisms of central positional nystagmus in neurological patients with posterior fossa lesions, we developed a three-dimensional (3-D) mathematical model to simulate head position-dependent changes in eye position control relative to gravity. This required a model implementation of saccadic burst generation, of the neural velocity to eye position integrator, which includes the experimentally demonstrated leakage in the torsional component, and of otolith-dependent neural control of Listing's plane. The validity of the model was first tested by simulating saccadic eye movements in different head positions. Then the model was used to simulate central positional nystagmus in off-vertical head positions. The model simulated lesions of assumed otolith inputs to the burst generator or the neural integrator, both of which resulted in different types of torsional-vertical nystagmus that only occurred during head tilt in roll plane. The model data qualitatively fit clinical observations of central positional nystagmus. Quantitative comparison with patient data were not possible, since no 3-D analyses of eye movements in various head positions have been reported in the literature on patients with positional nystagmus. The present model, prompted by an open clinical question, proposes a new hypothesis about the generation of pathological nystagmus and about neural control of Listing's plane.

scholarly journals Computations underlying the visuomotor transformation for smooth pursuit eye movements

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1377-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Scott Murdison ◽  
Guillaume Leclercq ◽  
Philippe Lefèvre ◽  
Gunnar Blohm
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Visuomotor Transformation ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Retinal Motion ◽  
The Brain

Smooth pursuit eye movements are driven by retinal motion and enable us to view moving targets with high acuity. Complicating the generation of these movements is the fact that different eye and head rotations can produce different retinal stimuli but giving rise to identical smooth pursuit trajectories. However, because our eyes accurately pursue targets regardless of eye and head orientation (Blohm G, Lefèvre P. J Neurophysiol 104: 2103–2115, 2010), the brain must somehow take these signals into account. To learn about the neural mechanisms potentially underlying this visual-to-motor transformation, we trained a physiologically inspired neural network model to combine two-dimensional (2D) retinal motion signals with three-dimensional (3D) eye and head orientation and velocity signals to generate a spatially correct 3D pursuit command. We then simulated conditions of 1) head roll-induced ocular counterroll, 2) oblique gaze-induced retinal rotations, 3) eccentric gazes (invoking the half-angle rule), and 4) optokinetic nystagmus to investigate how units in the intermediate layers of the network accounted for different 3D constraints. Simultaneously, we simulated electrophysiological recordings (visual and motor tunings) and microstimulation experiments to quantify the reference frames of signals at each processing stage. We found a gradual retinal-to-intermediate-to-spatial feedforward transformation through the hidden layers. Our model is the first to describe the general 3D transformation for smooth pursuit mediated by eye- and head-dependent gain modulation. Based on several testable experimental predictions, our model provides a mechanism by which the brain could perform the 3D visuomotor transformation for smooth pursuit.

Saccades From Torsional Offset Positions Back to Listing's Plane

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 3241-3253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Choongkil Lee ◽  
David S. Zee ◽  
Dominik Straumann
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Medial Longitudinal Fasciculus ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Listing's Plane ◽  
Vertical Saccades ◽  
Horizontal Saccade ◽  
Saccade Duration ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Pontine Lesions Impair Visually Guided Eye and Hand Movements

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedemann Bunjes ◽  
Peter Thier
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Human Case ◽  
Limb Movement ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Movement Trajectories ◽  
Functional Topology ◽  
Muscle Innervation

SummaryAlthough animal research and some rare human case reports suggest that lesions of the dorsal pons yield saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movement deficits, little is known about the functional topology of the human pontine nuclei (PN) and whether limb movements are similarly affected as eye movements. Saccadic as well as SP eye and pointing movements were measured in six patients with lesions in the PN region. Five patients of the six exhibited dysmetric saccades, whilst smooth pursuit gain was reduced in four. Pontine lesions also alter the relationship between amplitude, velocity, and velocity skewness of saccadic eye movements. Limb movement trajectories were more curved in four patients. The results suggest that the lesions impair a general calibration mechanism that uses the parallel fiber-Purkinjecell synapse in the cerebellar cortex to adjust the timing of muscle innervation in visually guided oculomotor as well as limb movement tasks.

scholarly journals Saccades and smooth pursuit eye movements trigger equivalent gaze-cued orienting effects

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 1860-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen RH Langton ◽  
Alex H McIntyre ◽  
Peter JB Hancock ◽  
Helmut Leder
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Orienting Effect ◽  
Motion Speed ◽  
Uncued Target

Research has established that a perceived eye gaze produces a concomitant shift in a viewer’s spatial attention in the direction of that gaze. The two experiments reported here investigate the extent to which the nature of the eye movement made by the gazer contributes to this orienting effect. On each trial in these experiments, participants were asked to make a speeded response to a target that could appear in a location toward which a centrally presented face had just gazed (a cued target) or in a location that was not the recipient of a gaze (an uncued target). The gaze cues consisted of either fast saccadic eye movements or slower smooth pursuit movements. Cued targets were responded to faster than uncued targets, and this gaze-cued orienting effect was found to be equivalent for each type of gaze shift both when the gazes were un-predictive of target location (Experiment 1) and counterpredictive of target location (Experiment 2). The results offer no support for the hypothesis that motion speed modulates gaze-cued orienting. However, they do suggest that motion of the eyes per se, regardless of the type of movement, may be sufficient to trigger an orienting effect.

The Brain Stem Saccadic Burst Generator Encodes Gaze in Three-Dimensional Space

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 2602-2616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion R. Van Horn ◽  
Pierre A. Sylvestre ◽  
Kathleen E. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Different Depths ◽  
The Brain

When we look between objects located at different depths the horizontal movement of each eye is different from that of the other, yet temporally synchronized. Traditionally, a vergence-specific neuronal subsystem, independent from other oculomotor subsystems, has been thought to generate all eye movements in depth. However, recent studies have challenged this view by unmasking interactions between vergence and saccadic eye movements during disconjugate saccades. Here, we combined experimental and modeling approaches to address whether the premotor command to generate disconjugate saccades originates exclusively in “vergence centers.” We found that the brain stem burst generator, which is commonly assumed to drive only the conjugate component of eye movements, carries substantial vergence-related information during disconjugate saccades. Notably, facilitated vergence velocities during disconjugate saccades were synchronized with the burst onset of excitatory and inhibitory brain stem saccadic burst neurons (SBNs). Furthermore, the time-varying discharge properties of the majority of SBNs (>70%) preferentially encoded the dynamics of an individual eye during disconjugate saccades. When these experimental results were implemented into a computer-based simulation, to further evaluate the contribution of the saccadic burst generator in generating disconjugate saccades, we found that it carries all the vergence drive that is necessary to shape the activity of the abducens motoneurons to which it projects. Taken together, our results provide evidence that the premotor commands from the brain stem saccadic circuitry, to the target motoneurons, are sufficient to ensure the accurate control shifts of gaze in three dimensions.

Recasting the Smooth Pursuit Eye Movement System

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 591-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Krauzlis
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
High Acuity ◽  
Voluntary Eye Movements ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Brain

Primates use a combination of smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements to stabilize the retinal image of selected objects within the high-acuity region near the fovea. Pursuit has traditionally been viewed as a relatively automatic behavior, driven by visual motion signals and mediated by pathways that connect visual areas in the cerebral cortex to motor regions in the cerebellum. However, recent findings indicate that this view needs to be reconsidered. Rather than being controlled primarily by areas in extrastriate cortex specialized for processing visual motion, pursuit involves an extended network of cortical areas, and, of these, the pursuit-related region in the frontal eye fields appears to exert the most direct influence. The traditional pathways through the cerebellum are important, but there are also newly identified routes involving structures previously associated with the control of saccades, including the basal ganglia, the superior colliculus, and nuclei in the brain stem reticular formation. These recent findings suggest that the pursuit system has a functional architecture very similar to that of the saccadic system. This viewpoint provides a new perspective on the processing steps that occur as descending control signals interact with circuits in the brain stem and cerebellum responsible for gating and executing voluntary eye movements. Although the traditional view describes pursuit and saccades as two distinct neural systems, it may be more accurate to consider the two movements as different outcomes from a shared cascade of sensory–motor functions.

Quick phases control ocular torsion during smooth pursuit

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 2151-2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard J. M. Hess ◽  
Jakob S. Thomassen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Rotation Axis ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Eye Rotation ◽  
Smooth Tracking

One of the open questions in oculomotor control of visually guided eye movements is whether it is possible to smoothly track a target along a curvilinear path across the visual field without changing the torsional stance of the eye. We show in an experimental study of three-dimensional eye movements in subhuman primates ( Macaca mulatta) that although the pursuit system is able to smoothly change the orbital orientation of the eye's rotation axis, the smooth ocular motion was interrupted every few hundred milliseconds by a small quick phase with amplitude <1.5° while the animal tracked a target along a circle or ellipse. Specifically, during circular pursuit of targets moving at different angular eccentricities (5°, 10°, and 15°) relative to straight ahead at spatial frequencies of 0.067 and 0.1 Hz, the torsional amplitude of the intervening quick phases was typically around 1° or smaller and changed direction for clockwise vs. counterclockwise tracking. Reverse computations of the eye rotation based on the recorded angular eye velocity showed that the quick phases facilitate the overall control of ocular orientation in the roll plane, thereby minimizing torsional disturbances of the visual field. On the basis of a detailed kinematic analysis, we suggest that quick phases during curvilinear smooth tracking serve to minimize deviations from Donders' law, which are inevitable due to the spherical configuration space of smooth eye movements.

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