Quantitative comparison between saccadic and ataxic pursuits

Smooth pursuit has been determined by the examiners' visualization as 'smooth pursuit', 'saccadic pursuit', or 'ataxic pursuit' according to the shapes of the eye movements on the ENG (electronystagmography) recording paper. Even since the introduction of computers for the measurement of smooth pursuit, however, no trial to compare quantitatively between smooth pursuit, saccadic pursuit and ataxic pursuit had been made up to the present. In the present work we analysed 10 smooth (normal) pursuits, 23 saccadic pursuits and 7 ataxic pursuits quantitatively with a microcomputer and found that the phase relationship between target movements and eye movements was the most prominent factor for distinguishing smooth pursuit pattern differences.