The nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (nLM) and the nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) in pigeons are both involved in optokinetic nystagmus. They are reciprocally connected and thus may interact with each other. The present study injected lidocaine into nLM and then examined the effects of nLM blockade on visual responses of nBOR neurons to target motion. The results indicate that nLM could...

Our previous study revealed that a slowly moving foreground, which is presented in front of a fast-moving orthogonal background, can induce self-motion perception in the same direction as its motion (inverted vection; Vis. Res. 40 (2000) 2915). The present study shows that inverted vection becomes stronger in the conditions where the foreground stimulus is presented in the central area of obser...

BACKGROUND Wilson's disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder resulting from an abnormality of copper metabolism. The excessive accumulation of copper in the brain induces an extrapyramidal syndrome. Oculomotor abnormalities occur in most extrapyramidal disorders but have rarely been studied in Wilson's disease. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the ocular motility manifestations of Wilson's dis...

PURPOSE Individuals with oculocutaneous albinism are predisposed to visual system abnormalities affecting the retina and retinofugal projections, which may lead to reduced visual acuity and Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome (INS). Due to absence of an established mammalian animal model, mechanisms underlying INS remain elusive. In this study, we screened wild-type mice of varying pigmentation for oc...

We recently described an area in the ferret posterior suprasylvian (PSS) cortex characterized by a high proportion of direction selective neurons. To answer the question whether area PSS subserves functions similar to cat posteromediolateral suprasylvian area (PMLS) and monkey medial temporal area (MT) we investigated the contribution of area PSS to visual motion perception and optokinetic nyst...

Directional asymmetry of primary and secondary optokinetic afternystagmus (OKAN I and OKAN II, respectively) was studied in 20 patients with small acoustic neurinomas (< or = 20 mm), and results were compared to those for 24 normal controls. The optokinetic afterresponse was induced by 60 s of horizontal whole-field optokinetic stimulation in both directions. Among patients, the optokinetic aft...

In an unselected series of 644 cases of multiple sclerosis, 25 cases with acquired pendular nystagmus were found. Ten additional cases of pendular nystagmus in multiple sclerosis were investigated, and four cases from the literature are analysed. Acquired pendular nystagmus is purely sinusoidal in form, ceases with eye closure, is accompanied by oscillopsia, often monocular and vertical in dire...