Velocity characteristics of smooth pursuit eye movements to different patterns of target motion

Abstract

Horizontal smooth pursuit eye movements were recorded in normal subjects in response to different patterns of target motion that was either periodic or not. Periodic patterns were triangular and sinusoidal waves. Non-periodic patterns were ramps with either constant or sinusoidally varying velocity. In both cases, several different amplitudes and peak velocities were considered. The experimental results indicate that (a) the performance of the smooth pursuit system depends on the spatio-temporal characteristics of target motion, (b) the relationship between smooth pursuit eye velocity and target velocity during the tracking of constant velocity ramps is strongly nonlinear with a saturation depending on the amplitude of target excursion, (c) in the remaining experimental conditions, there is a linear behaviour up to target velocities of 75 deg/s with a gain of about 0.9.