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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 11, 2006, 26(2):458-466; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2789-05.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Frontal Oculomotor Regions during Smooth Pursuit

Danny Gagnon,¹ Tomá Paus,^1,3 Marie-Helène Grosbras,³ G. Bruce Pike,⁴ and Gillian A. O'Driscoll^1,2,4

Departments of ¹Psychology and ²Psychiatry, McGill University, and ³Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and ⁴McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H3A 1B1

Both the frontal eye fields (FEFs) and supplementary eye fields (SEFs) are known to be involved in smooth pursuit eye movements. It has been shown recently that stimulation of the smooth-pursuit area of the FEF [frontal pursuit area (FPA)] in monkey increases the pursuit response to unexpected changes in target motion during pursuit. In the current study, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the FPA and SEF in humans during sinusoidal pursuit to assess its effects on the pursuit response to predictable, rather than unexpected, changes in target motion. For the FPA, we found that TMS applied immediately before the target reversed direction increased eye velocity in the new direction, whereas TMS applied in mid-cycle, immediately before the target began to slow, decreased eye velocity. For the SEF, TMS applied at target reversal increased eye velocity in the new direction but had no effect on eye velocity when applied at mid-cycle. TMS of the control region (leg region of the somatosensory cortex) did not affect eye velocity at either point. Previous stimulation studies of FPA during pursuit have suggested that this region is involved in controlling the gain of the transformation of visual signals into pursuit motor commands. The current results suggest that the gain of the transformation of predictive signals into motor commands is also controlled by the FPA. The effect of stimulation of the SEF is distinct from that of the FPA and suggests that its role in sinusoidal pursuit is primarily at the target direction reversal.

Key words: smooth pursuit; eye movement; gain; supplementary eye field; frontal eye field; transcranial magnetic stimulation

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Received July 6, 2005; revised November 11, 2005; accepted November 12, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. S. Drew and P. van Donkelaar The Contribution of the Human FEF and SEF to Smooth Pursuit Initiation Cereb Cortex, November 1, 2007; 17(11): 2618 - 2624. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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