Development and Evaluation of a Performance-Based Test of Saccadic and Vestibulo-Ocular Control.

Acquisition of visual information from spatial points disparate enough to necessitate head and eye movement involves the vestibular and other oculo-motor control systems in shifting and stabilizing gaze relative to those points. In the present study a simple procedure to test oculomotor abilities was developed and evaluated it uses performance to establish initial gaze position and to insure the required gaze shift and stabilization are rapidly produced. Performance in three experiments was consistently and powerfully influenced by stimulus exposure duration, and to a lesser extent by the size of the required gaze shift. The performance of normal subjects in eye movement and head-and-eye movement conditions is quite predictable from static performance of normals. There were two main conclusions 1 The powerful effect of exposure time on performance suggests that the procedure will be sensitive to certain types of central nervous system and vestibular pathology. 2 Variation in performance characteristics implies that the procedure may be sensitive to individual differences in oculomotor abilities. Author