迫従眼球運動

Abstract

Sudden movements of a large-field pattern elicit ocular-following responses, which are short-latency tracking movements of the eyes. Ocular-following responses are assumed to help stabilize gaze on stationary objects. In our laboratory, we investigated the neural mechanism of ocular-following responses. Evidence from single-unit recordings has suggested that early ocular following is mediated by a pathway that includes the medial superior temporal (MST) area of the cortex, the dorsolateral pontine nucleus, and the ventral parafloccular lobes of the cerebellum. The results also suggest that the initial part of other slow tracking eye movements, the smooth pursuit and optokinetic response, share, at least in part, the pathway that mediates the ocular following.