Smooth pursuit eye movements

Abstract

Publisher Summary Smooth pursuit eye movements incorporate at least three well-known types of eye movements: (1) Foveal pursuit, with the goal of keeping the visual projection of a small moving target continuously on the center of the fovea, as first described by Dodge (1903). (2) Schau-nystagmus (look nystagmus), in this case the subject deliberately “fixates” an object as a part of the visual world that is moving relative to the unaccelerated head. (3) Compensatory eye movements, which are known as vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in the light, they manifest the attempt to “fixate” a stationary target while the head performs rotatory or translatory movements. The largest contribution to the neural control of these compensatory eye movements is presumably of pure vestibular origin and can be estimated as the vestibulo-ocular reflex in the dark. Various types of special pursuit eye movement can only be induced under certain laboratory conditions. This chapter discusses on foveal pursuit during purely visual and combined visual-vestibular stimulus paradigms.