Document Detail


Inhibition of steady-state smooth pursuit and catch-up saccades by abrupt visual and auditory onsets.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20844111     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Process    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
It is known that visual transients prolong saccadic latency and reduce saccadic frequency. The latter effect was attributed to subcortical structures because it occurred only 60-70 ms after stimulus onset. We examined the effects of large task-irrelevant transients on steady-state pursuit and the generation of catch-up saccades. Two screen-wide stripes of equal contrast (4, 20, or 100%) were briefly flashed at equal eccentricities (3, 6, or 12°) from the pursuit target. About 100 ms after flash onset, we observed that pursuit gain dropped by 6-12% and catch-up saccades were entirely suppressed. The relatively long latency of the inhibition suggests that it results from cortical mechanisms that may act by promoting fixation or the deployment of attention over the visual field. In addition, we show that a loud irrelevant sound is able to generate the same inhibition of saccades as visual transients, whereas it only induces a weak modulation of pursuit gain, indicating a privileged access of acoustic information to the saccadic system. Finally, irrelevant changes in motion direction orthogonal to pursuit had a smaller and later inhibitory effect.
Authors:
Dirk Kerzel; Sabine Born; David Souto
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't     Date:  2010-09-15
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of neurophysiology     Volume:  104     ISSN:  1522-1598     ISO Abbreviation:  J. Neurophysiol.     Publication Date:  2010 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-11-03     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0375404     Medline TA:  J Neurophysiol     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  2573-85     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, Genève, Switzerland. dirk.kerzel@unige.ch
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Stiffness control of balance during quiet standing and dual task in older adults: the MOBILIZE Bosto...
Next Document:  Depolarization-induced Ca2+ entry preferentially evokes release of large quanta in the developing Xe...