Fukushima Kikuro, Kasahara Satoshi, Akao Teppei, Saito Hiroshi, Kurkin Sergei, Fukushima Junko, Peterson Barry W
Department of Physiology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 May;1164:194-200. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2008.03738.x.
The smooth-pursuit system is important to precisely track a slowly moving object and maintain its image on the foveae during movement. During whole-body rotation, the smooth-pursuit system interacts with the vestibular system. The caudal part of the frontal eye fields (FEF) contains smooth pursuit-related neurons that signal eye velocity during pursuit. The majority of them receives vestibular inputs and signal gaze-velocity during passive whole-body rotation. It was asked whether discharge modulation of FEF pursuit neurons during head rotation on the stationary trunk could be accounted for by vestibular inputs only or if both vestibular and neck proprioceptive inputs contributed to the modulation. Discharge modulation during active head pursuit, passive head rotation on the stationary trunk, passive whole-body rotation, and passive trunk rotation against the stationary head were compared. The results indicate that both vestibular and neck proprioceptive inputs contributed to the discharge modulation of FEF pursuit neurons during head movements.
平稳跟踪系统对于精确跟踪缓慢移动的物体并在运动过程中将其图像保持在中央凹上非常重要。在全身旋转过程中，平稳跟踪系统与前庭系统相互作用。额叶眼区（FEF）的尾部包含与平稳跟踪相关的神经元，这些神经元在跟踪过程中发出眼睛速度信号。它们中的大多数在前庭输入，并在被动全身旋转过程中发出注视速度信号。研究人员提出了一个问题，即在静止躯干上头部旋转期间FEF跟踪神经元的放电调制是否仅由前庭输入引起，或者前庭和颈部本体感觉输入是否都对调制有贡献。比较了主动头部跟踪、静止躯干上的被动头部旋转、被动全身旋转以及相对于静止头部的被动躯干旋转期间的放电调制。结果表明，在前庭运动期间，前庭和颈部本体感觉输入都对FEF跟踪神经元的放电调制有贡献。
