CONTEXT Analyses of smooth pursuit eye movement parameters in patients with schizophrenia provide information about the integrity of neural networks mediating motion perception, sensorimotor transformation, and cognitive processes such as prediction. Although pursuit eye tracking deficits have been widely reported in schizophrenia, the integrity of discrete components of pursuit responses and t...

The premotor pathways subserving saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements are usually thought to be different. Indeed, saccade and smooth-pursuit eye movements have different dynamics and functions. In particular, a group of midline cells in the pons called omnipause neurons (OPNs) are considered to be part of the saccadic system only. It has been established that OPNs keep premotor neurons fo...

Anatomic and neuronal recordings suggest that the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis (NRTP) of macaques may be a major pontine component of a cortico-ponto-cerebellar pathway that subserves the control of smooth-pursuit eye movements. The existence of such a pathway was implicated by the lack of permanent pursuit impairment after bilateral lesions in the dorsolateral pontine nucleus. To provid...

Extending the notion of inheritable genotype in genetic programming (GP) from the common model of DNA into chromatin (DNA and histones), we propose an approach of embedding in GP an explicitly controlled gene expression via modification of histones. Proposed double-cell representation of individuals features somatic cell and germ cell, both represented by their respective chromatin structures. ...

A foveal target increases catch-up saccade frequency during smooth pursuit 1 2 Stephen J. Heinen, Elena Potapchuk, Scott N. J. Watamaniuk 3 4 Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA 5 Department of Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, 05435, USA 6 7 Running head: Foveal pursuit targets increase catch-up saccade frequency 8 9 Corresponding author: Steph...

The extent of perceived blur produced by a moving retinal image is less when the image motion occurs during pursuit eye movements compared to fixation. This study examined the effect of this reduced perception of motion blur during pursuit on spatial-interval acuity. Observers judged during pursuit at 4 or 8 deg/s whether the horizontal separation between two stationary lines was larger or smal...

We have investigated the functional anatomy of pursuit eye movements in humans with functional magnetic imaging. The performance of pursuit eye movements induced activations in the cortical eye fields also activated during the execution of visually guided saccadic eye movements, namely in the precentral cortex [frontal eye field (FEF)], the medial superior frontal cortex (supplementary eye fiel...

Visual tracking of moving targets requires the combination of smooth pursuit eye movements with catch-up saccades. In primates, catch-up saccades usually take place only during pursuit initiation because pursuit gain is close to unity. This contrasts with the lower and more variable gain of smooth pursuit in cats, where smooth eye movements are intermingled with catch-up saccades during steady-...

1. We recorded the simple spike firing rate of gaze velocity Purkinje cells (GVP-cells) in the flocculus/ventral paraflocculus of two monkeys during the smooth pursuit eye movements evoked by a target that was initially at rest, started suddenly, moved at a constant velocity, and then stopped. 2. For target motion in the preferred direction, GVP-cells showed a large transient increase in firing...