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Linked target selection for saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Physiology, W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience, and Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA. justin@phy.ucsf.edu
Summary
Monkeys selectively enhance smooth pursuit eye movements for a chosen target after a saccade, demonstrating spatially selective visual motion processing. Target selection for pursuit is time-locked to saccade occurrence, suggesting motor commands play a key role.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Primate behavior
Background:
- Motor activity often requires selecting one target amidst distractors.
- Understanding target selection in smooth pursuit eye movements is crucial for naturalistic behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how primate smooth pursuit eye movements select targets in a naturalistic setting.
- To analyze the role of saccades in target selection for smooth pursuit.
Main Methods:
- Monkeys performed a task tracking two moving targets presented simultaneously.
- Analysis focused on smooth pursuit eye velocity before and after saccades.
- Saccade endpoints and latencies were correlated with pursuit behavior.
Main Results:
- Pre-saccadic smooth pursuit reflected a vector average of both target motions.
- Post-saccadic pursuit showed spatially selective enhancement for the motion at the saccade endpoint.
- Target selection transitioned from averaging to selective enhancement only after a saccade occurred.
Conclusions:
- Post-saccadic enhancement of smooth pursuit is spatially selective.
- Noncued target selection for pursuit is time-locked to saccade occurrence.
- Saccade motor commands may causally influence target selection for pursuit.