Blink-induced saccadic oscillations.
A patient with a neurodegenerative disease had abnormal saccades only when he blinked. These saccades were hypermetric and were followed immediately, without any intersaccadic interval, by a large, oppositely directed saccade (dynamic overshoot). To explain these findings, we hypothesize that a blink-related neural signal can modulate the activity of pause cells that normally inhibit saccadic burst neurons during fixation. In pathological circumstances, abnormal function of pause cells could lead to large-amplitude saccadic oscillations. In normal subjects, blinks could induce short bursts of low-amplitude flutter.
D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking; D005133:Eye Movements; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D009760:Nystagmus, Physiologic; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades