Hemispheric Control of Eye Movements

Abstract

The quantitative analysis of the smooth pursuit eye movements in a patient who had a left hemispherectomy 11 years previously showed that although the remaining right hemisphere could generate normal pursuit to the right, leftward pursuit was always slower than the target velocity and required corrective saccades. The number of saccades was greatest at lower target speeds and decreased at higher target speeds but the average amplitude of saccades increased monotonically with target velocity. The proportion of the pursuit attempt accomplished by saccades was always about 80%, and the velocity gain of the pursuit system was 0.24 to 0.34.