title: Role of the frontal eye fields in smooth-gaze tracking.
abstract: Visual and vestibular senses are essential for appropriate motor behavior in three-dimensional (3D) space. Discovery of relevant specific subdivisions in sensory and motor pathways in recent decades has considerably advanced our understanding of the overall neural control of movement. Such subdivisions must eventually be further delineated into functional neural circuits for purposeful motor acts. Two critical questions are where in the brain do such circuits operate, and by what means. In this chapter, these issues are addressed for smooth tracking eye-movement systems in the simian. These results show that contrary to current understanding, synthesis of the functionally similar eye-movement systems, smooth-pursuit and vergence, takes place in the frontal cortex. This processing, which is of higher order than previously supposed, enables primates to track and manipulate objects moving in 3D space with the utmost of efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan. kikuro@med.hokudai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kikuro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Takanobu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamanobe
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shinmei
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Sergei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurkin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003290:Convergence, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth / Q000502:physiology*; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*