title: Discharges of Purkinje cells in monkey's flocculus during smooth-pursuit eye movements and visual stimulus movements.
abstract: Modulations in discharges of Purkinje cells (P cells) associated with movements of visual patterns were studied in the flocculus of monkeys trained to execute smooth-pursuit eye movements and to suppress optokinetic nystagmus. One class of P cells responded to the movements of visual stimulus regardless of whether the eyes remained stationary (produced retinal-slip velocity) or moved with the stimulus produced eye velocity). These P cells processed high-order information concerning the absolute velocity of stimulus movements and thereby the eye velocity had already been incorporated in the visual responses (visuomotor P cells). The other class of P cells responded to visual inputs resulting from the retinal slip (visual P cells). The majority of visual P cells (82%) also modulated their activities during smooth pursuit. When sinusoidal trackings were executed against a stationary visual background, various types of interactions occurred in the P-cell responses between the converging visual and oculomotor inputs. The type of interaction was related to the preferred direction for the P cell during eye movements and the side of the peripheral receptive field.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005133:Eye Movements; D008254:Macaca nemestrina; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology