The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.

BACKGROUND: Saccadic eye movements are used to rapidly align the fovea with the image of objects of interest in peripheral vision. We have recently shown that in children there is a high preponderance of quick latency but poorly planned saccades that consistently fall short of the target goal. The c...

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Main Authors: Paul van Donkelaar, Yu Lin, David Hewlett
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2749336?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-bc00d54aa431482483d3fa305b96fcfd2020-11-25T02:38:52ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032009-01-0149e727810.1371/journal.pone.0007278The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.Paul van DonkelaarYu LinDavid HewlettBACKGROUND: Saccadic eye movements are used to rapidly align the fovea with the image of objects of interest in peripheral vision. We have recently shown that in children there is a high preponderance of quick latency but poorly planned saccades that consistently fall short of the target goal. The characteristics of these multiple saccades are consistent with a lack of proper inhibitory control of cortical oculomotor areas on the brainstem saccade generation circuitry. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present paper, we directly tested this assumption by using single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to transiently disrupt neuronal activity in the frontal eye fields (FEF) and supplementary eye fields (SEF) in adults performing a gap saccade task. The results showed that the incidence of multiple saccades was increased for ispiversive but not contraversive directions for the right and left FEF, the left SEF, but not for the right SEF. Moreover, this disruption was most substantial during the approximately 50 ms period around the appearance of the peripheral target. A control condition in which the dorsal motor cortex was stimulated demonstrated that this was not due to any non-specific effects of the TMS influencing the spatial distribution of attention. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, the results are consistent with a direction-dependent role of the FEF and left SEF in delaying the release of saccadic eye movements until they have been fully planned.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2749336?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Paul van Donkelaar
Yu Lin
David Hewlett
spellingShingle Paul van Donkelaar
Yu Lin
David Hewlett
The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Paul van Donkelaar
Yu Lin
David Hewlett
author_sort Paul van Donkelaar
title The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
title_short The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
title_full The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
title_fullStr The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
title_full_unstemmed The human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
title_sort human frontal oculomotor cortical areas contribute asymmetrically to motor planning in a gap saccade task.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2009-01-01
description BACKGROUND: Saccadic eye movements are used to rapidly align the fovea with the image of objects of interest in peripheral vision. We have recently shown that in children there is a high preponderance of quick latency but poorly planned saccades that consistently fall short of the target goal. The characteristics of these multiple saccades are consistent with a lack of proper inhibitory control of cortical oculomotor areas on the brainstem saccade generation circuitry. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present paper, we directly tested this assumption by using single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to transiently disrupt neuronal activity in the frontal eye fields (FEF) and supplementary eye fields (SEF) in adults performing a gap saccade task. The results showed that the incidence of multiple saccades was increased for ispiversive but not contraversive directions for the right and left FEF, the left SEF, but not for the right SEF. Moreover, this disruption was most substantial during the approximately 50 ms period around the appearance of the peripheral target. A control condition in which the dorsal motor cortex was stimulated demonstrated that this was not due to any non-specific effects of the TMS influencing the spatial distribution of attention. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, the results are consistent with a direction-dependent role of the FEF and left SEF in delaying the release of saccadic eye movements until they have been fully planned.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2749336?pdf=render
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