Gain Control in Predictive Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements: Evidence for an Acceleration-Based Predictive Mechanism

The smooth pursuit eye movement system incorporates various control features enabling adaptation to specific tracking situations. In this work, we analyzed the interplay between two of these mechanisms: gain control and predictive pursuit. We tested human responses to high-frequency perturbations during step-ramp pursuit, as well as the pursuit of a periodically moving target. For the latter task, we found a nonlinear interaction between perturbation response and carrier acceleration. Responses to perturbations where the initial perturbation acceleration was contradirectional to carrier acceleration increased with carrier velocity, in a manner similar to that observed during step-ramp pursuit. In contrast, responses to perturbations with ipsidirectional initial perturbation and carrier acceleration were large for all carrier velocities. Modeling the pursuit system suggests that gain control and short-term prediction are separable elements. The observed effect may be explained by combining the standard gain control mechanism with a derivative-based short-term predictive mechanism. The nonlinear interaction between perturbation and carrier acceleration can be reproduced by assuming a signal saturation, which is acting on the derivative of the target velocity signal. Our results therefore argue for the existence of an internal estimate of target acceleration as a basis for a simple yet efficient short-term predictive mechanism.