Saccade adaptation abnormalities implicate dysfunction of cerebellar-dependent learning mechanisms in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

The cerebellar vermis (lobules VI-VII) has been implicated in both postmortem and neuroimaging studies of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This region maintains the consistent accuracy of saccadic eye movements and plays an especially important role in correcting systematic errors in saccade amplitudes such as those induced by adaptation paradigms. Saccade adaptation paradigms have not yet been used to study ASD.

Patient safety: solutions in managed care organizations?

Despite the growing acknowledgment of the necessity for patient safety initiatives to address medical errors, the role of managed care organizations (MCOs) in these programs has only recently been challenged. Managed care quality improvement programs have mainly focused upon pay-for-performance initiatives, largely ignoring specific patient safety efforts. To effectively reduce medical errors, MCOs must leverage their unique positions to influence and educate both providers and consumers.

Oculomotor studies of cerebellar function in autism.

Histopathological, neuroimaging and genetic findings indicate cerebellar abnormalities in autism, but the extent of neurophysiological dysfunction associated with those findings has not been systematically examined. Suppression of intrusive saccades (square wave jerks) and the ability to sustain eccentric gaze, two phenomena requiring intact cerebellar function, were examined in 52 high-functioning individuals with autism and 52 age- and IQ-matched healthy subjects during visual fixation of static central and peripheral targets. Rates of intrusive saccades were not increased in autism during visual fixation, and foveopetal ocular drift was also not increased when subjects held an eccentric gaze.

Cerebral hemispheric specialization for spatial attention: spatial distribution of search-related eye fixations in the absence of neglect.

The "specialization" of the right hemisphere for spatial attention is widely accepted but poorly understood. While several theories have been supported by studies of patients with acute hemispatial neglect, generalizability beyond this population remains unclear. In this study, we compared the predictions of two attention models [Brain 119 (1996) 841; Trans.