Anti-Saccades in Cerebellar Ataxias Reveal a Contribution of the Cerebellum in Executive Functions.

Objective: Increasing evidence suggests a cerebellar contribution to modulate cognitive aspects of motor behavior and executive functions. Supporting findings come from studies on patients with neurodegenerative diseases, in which however, given the extent of the disease, the specific role of the cerebellum, could not be clearly isolated. Anti-saccades are considered a sensitive tool to test executive functions.

Characteristic Eye Movements in Ataxia-Telangiectasia-Like Disorder: An Explanatory Hypothesis.

Objective: To investigate cerebellar dysfunctions and quantitatively characterize specific oculomotor changes in ataxia-telangiectasia-like disorder (ATLD), a rare autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the gene. Additionally, to further elucidate the pathophysiology of cerebellar damage in the ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) spectrum disorders.

Methods: Saccade dynamics, metrics, and visual fixation deficits were investigated in two Italian adult siblings with genetically confirmed ATLD.

Inter-Trial Correlations in Predictive-Saccade Endpoints: Fractal Scaling Reflects Differential Control along Task-Relevant and Orthogonal Directions.

Saccades exhibit variation in performance from one trial to the next, even when paced at a constant rate by targets at two fixed locations. We previously showed that amplitude fluctuations in consecutive predictive saccades have fractal structure: the spectrum of the sequence of consecutive amplitudes has a power-law () form, indicative of inter-trial correlations that reflect the storage of prior performance information to guide the planning of subsequent movements. More gradual decay of these inter-trial correlations coincides with a larger magnitude of spectral slope α, and indicates stronger information storage over longer times.

Spatial ranking strategy and enhanced peripheral vision discrimination optimize performance and efficiency of visual sequential search.

Visual sequential search might use a peripheral spatial ranking of the scene to put the next target of the sequence in the correct order. This strategy, indeed, might enhance the discriminative capacity of the human peripheral vision and spare neural resources associated with foveation. However, it is not known how exactly the peripheral vision sustains sequential search and whether the sparing of neural resources has a cost in terms of performance.

Ocular-motor profile and effects of memantine in a familial form of adult cerebellar ataxia with slow saccades and square wave saccadic intrusions.

Fixation instability due to saccadic intrusions is a feature of autosomal recessive spinocerebellar ataxias, and includes square wave intrusions (SWI) and macrosaccadic oscillations (MSO). A recent report suggested that the non-competitive antagonist of NMDA receptors, memantine, could decrease MSO and improve fixation in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia with saccadic intrusions (SCASI). We similarly tested two sisters, respectively of 58 and 60 years, with an unrecognized form of recessive, adult-onset cerebellar ataxia, peripheral neuropathy and slow saccades, who showed prominent SWI and also complained with difficulty in reading.

Evaluating gaze control on a multi-target sequencing task: the distribution of fixations is evidence of exploration optimisation.

Many high cognitive applications, such as vision processing and representation and understanding of images, often need to analyse in detail how an ongoing visual search was performed in a representative subset of the image, which may be arranged into sequences of loci, called regions of interest (ROIs). We used the Trial Making Test (TMT) in which subjects are asked to fixate a sequence of letters and numbers in a logical alphanumeric order. The main characteristic of TMT is to force the subject to perform a default and well-known path.

Fast versus slow: different saccadic behavior in cerebellar ataxias.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder primarily characterized by involvement of the brainstem and cerebellum, basal ganglia, spinal cord, cerebral cortex, but white matter is also involved. In late-onset cerebellar ataxia (LOCA), the cerebellum is mainly involved, as demonstrated by clinical and neuroradiological findings. These neurodegenerative diseases are often associated with progressive abnormalities in eye movement control, particularly saccadic changes.

Evaluating the human ongoing visual search performance by eye tracking application and sequencing tests.

Human visual search is an everyday activity that enables humans to explore the real world. Given the visual input, during a visual search, it is necessary to select some aspects of input to shift the gaze to next target. The aim of the study is to develop a mathematical method able to evaluate the visual selection process during the execution of a high cognitively demanding task such as the trial making test part B (TMT).

Differences in saccade dynamics between spinocerebellar ataxia 2 and late-onset cerebellar ataxias.

The cerebellum is implicated in maintaining the saccadic subsystem efficient for vision by minimizing movement inaccuracy and by learning from endpoint errors. This ability is often disrupted in degenerative cerebellar diseases, as demonstrated by saccade kinetic abnormalities. The study of saccades in these patients may therefore provide insights into the neural substrate underlying saccadic motor control.

Spike removal through multiscale wavelet and entropy analysis of ocular motor noise: a case study in patients with cerebellar disease.

Wavelet decomposition of ocular motor signals was investigated with a view to its use for noise analysis and filtering. Ocular motor noise may be physiological, depending on brain activities, or experimental, depending on the eye recording machine, head movements and blinks. Experimental noise, such as spikes, must be removed, preserving noise due to neuro-physiological activities.