title: The frontal eye field is involved in visual vector inversion in humans--a theta burst stimulation study.
abstract: In the antisaccade task, subjects are requested to suppress a reflexive saccade towards a visual target and to perform a saccade towards the opposite side. In addition, in order to reproduce an accurate saccadic amplitude, the visual saccade vector (i.e., the distance between a central fixation point and the peripheral target) must be exactly inverted from one visual hemifield to the other. Results from recent studies using a correlational approach (i.e., fMRI, MEG) suggest that not only the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) but also the frontal eye field (FEF) might play an important role in such a visual vector inversion process. In order to assess whether the FEF contributes to visual vector inversion, we applied an interference approach with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) during a memory-guided antisaccade task. In 10 healthy subjects, one train of cTBS was applied over the right FEF prior to a memory-guided antisaccade task. In comparison to the performance without stimulation or with sham stimulation, cTBS over the right FEF induced a hypometric gain for rightward but not leftward antisaccades. These results obtained with an interference approach confirm that the FEF is also involved in the process of visual vector inversion.
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jaun-Frutiger
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland ; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cazzoli
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: René M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Müri
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Claudio L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bassetti
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland ; Centre of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Luzern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nyffeler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology