title: The effect of eye movement on the control of arm movement to a target.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eye movement on the control of arm movement to a target. Healthy humans flexed the elbow to a stationary target in response to a start tone. Simultaneously, the subject moved the eyes to the target (saccade eye movement), visually tracked a laser point moving with the arm (smooth pursuit eye movement), or gazed at a stationary start point at the midline of the horizontal visual angle (non-eye movement--NEM). Arm movement onset was delayed when saccade eye movement accompanied it. The onset of an electromyographic burst in the biceps muscle and the onset of saccade eye movement were almost simultaneous when both the arm and the eyes moved to the target. Arm movement duration during smooth pursuit eye movement was significantly longer than that during saccade eye movement or NEM. In spite of these findings, amplitudes of motor-evoked potential in the biceps and triceps brachii muscles were not significantly different among the eye movement conditions. These findings indicate that eye movement certainly affects the temporal control of arm movement, but may not affect corticospinal excitability in the arm muscles during arm movement.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Comprehensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Horino
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Akiyoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsugi
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamata
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiraoka
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult