Brain Advance Access originally published online on November 7, 2003
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Brain, Vol. 127, No. 3, 460-477, 2004
© 2004 Guarantors of Brain
doi: 10.1093/brain/awh035
Using saccades as a research tool in the clinical neurosciences
1 Departments of Neurology, Biomedical Engineering and Neurosciences, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centre and University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, and 2 Division of Neurosciences and Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK
Correspondence to: R. John Leigh, MD, Department of Neurology, University Hospitals, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106–5040, USA E-mail: rjl4{at}po.cwru.edu
Saccades are rapid eye movements that move the line of sight between successive points of fixation; they are among the best understood of movements, possessing dynamic properties that are easily measured. Saccades have become a popular means to study motor control, cognition and memory, and are often used in conjunction with techniques such as functional imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation. It has been possible to identify several, distinct populations of neurons, from brainstem to cerebral cortex, that contribute to behaviours ranging from reflexive glances to memorized sequences of saccades during learned tasks. This progress has led to the development of schemes for the neurobiology of saccades that imply an equivalence of a region of the brain with specific behaviours (e.g. prefrontal cortex with memory-guided saccades). In fact, multiple neuronal populations contribute to each type of saccadic behaviour, be it ‘reflexive’ or ‘complex’. Furthermore, an important difference exists between cortical areas that encode visual stimuli or desired saccades over a population of neurons as ‘place maps’, and motoneurons in oculomotor, trochlear and abducens nuclei that dictate eye rotations in terms of their discharge rates. This dichotomy implies that a ‘spatial-temporal transformation’ of saccadic signals must occur between cerebral cortex and ocular motoneurons, to which the superior colliculus and cerebellum contribute. Consideration of such factors may broaden the value of saccades, which can be used to test a range of hypotheses, and provide a simple scheme for understanding clinical disorders of saccades; some illustrative video clips are available as supplementary material at Brain Online.
Key Words: cerebellum; eye fields; functional imaging; basal ganglia
Abbreviations: DLPC= dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; FEF = frontal eye field; LIP = lateral intraparietal area; PEF = parietal eye field; PPRF = paramedian pontine reticular formation; PMT = paramedian tracts; PPC = posterior parietal cortex; PSP = progressive supranuclear palsy; riMLF = rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus; SEF = supplementary eye field; SMA = supplementary motor area; SNpr = substantia nigra, pars reticulata; TMS = transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Received July 17, 2003. Revised September 11, 2003. Accepted September 11, 2003.
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