title: Top-down but not bottom-up visual scanning is affected in hereditary pure cerebellar ataxia.
abstract: The aim of this study was to clarify the nature of visual processing deficits caused by cerebellar disorders. We studied the performance of two types of visual search (top-down visual scanning and bottom-up visual scanning) in 18 patients with pure cerebellar types of spinocerebellar degeneration (SCA6: 11; SCA31: 7). The gaze fixation position was recorded with an eye-tracking device while the subjects performed two visual search tasks in which they looked for a target Landolt figure among distractors. In the serial search task, the target was similar to the distractors and the subject had to search for the target by processing each item with top-down visual scanning. In the pop-out search task, the target and distractor were clearly discernible and the visual salience of the target allowed the subjects to detect it by bottom-up visual scanning. The saliency maps clearly showed that the serial search task required top-down visual attention and the pop-out search task required bottom-up visual attention. In the serial search task, the search time to detect the target was significantly longer in SCA patients than in normal subjects, whereas the search time in the pop-out search task was comparable between the two groups. These findings suggested that SCA patients cannot efficiently scan a target using a top-down attentional process, whereas scanning with a bottom-up attentional process is not affected. In the serial search task, the amplitude of saccades was significantly smaller in SCA patients than in normal subjects. The variability of saccade amplitude (saccadic dysmetria), number of re-fixations, and unstable fixation (nystagmus) were larger in SCA patients than in normal subjects, accounting for a substantial proportion of scattered fixations around the items. Saccadic dysmetria, re-fixation, and nystagmus may play important roles in the impaired top-down visual scanning in SCA, hampering precise visual processing of individual items.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shunichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furubayashi
authors.affiliation: Segawa Neurological Clinic for Children, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.affiliation: Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hanajima
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shoji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ugawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Terao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002524:Cerebellar Ataxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception