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Cerebellar Contribution to Saccades and Gaze Holding
Author(s) -
GLASAUER STEFAN
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1303.018
Subject(s) - superior colliculus , neuroscience , saccadic masking , fastigial nucleus , oculomotor nucleus , psychology , brainstem , gaze , feed forward , lobe , cerebellum , eye movement , computer science , midbrain , artificial intelligence , biology , anatomy , central nervous system , control engineering , engineering
The possible role of the cerebellum for the control of saccades and gaze holding is reconsidered using a computational modeling approach. As suggested by previous research, control of gaze holding is assumed to be enhanced by the floccular lobe, whereas control of the saccadic pulse is governed by the oculomotor vermis and fastigial nucleus. In the present work, a negative feedback loop via the paramedian tract neurons and the floccular lobe that contains a forward model of the oculomotor plant is supposed to enhance the time constant of the brainstem integrator. Control of saccadic amplitude is hypothesized to be achieved by a more complex network: feedforward projections from the superior colliculus via the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis to the oculomotor vermis and fastigial nucleus cooperate with feedback connections from excitatory burst neurons to overcome the sluggishness of the assumed local feedback loop formed via the superior colliculus and to implement inverse dynamics of downstream neural and motor processing.