Electroencephalographic cortical oscillations and saccadic eye movements in humans

A model predicting different types of saccades has suggested that the presence of rhythmic brain activity determines whether a subject will produce regular or express saccades. We studied cortical oscillations preceding saccadic eye movements. Brain electrical activity was recorded in nine healthy a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 1999-02, Vol.261 (1), p.57-60
Main Authors: Skrandies, W., Anagnostou, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Alpha Rhythm
Beta Rhythm
Biological and medical sciences
Central nervous system
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
EEG
Electroencephalography
Electrophysiology
Eye Movements
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human neurophysiology
Humans
Male
Oscillations
Periodicity
Reaction Time - physiology
Saccades
Saccades - physiology
Theta Rhythm
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:A model predicting different types of saccades has suggested that the presence of rhythmic brain activity determines whether a subject will produce regular or express saccades. We studied cortical oscillations preceding saccadic eye movements. Brain electrical activity was recorded in nine healthy adults continuously from 30 electrodes while subjects performed saccades. In a so-called gap condition multimodal latency distributions resulted. Express saccades were preceded by different oscillatory activity than regular saccades. This was a highly significant finding restricted to the alpha and beta bands of the EEG. Step-wise discriminant analysis showed that cortical oscillations measured from only few electrode sites allowed to predict reliably which type of saccade a subject will make. These findings support the notion that stimulus-induced oscillations of the human EEG may modulate thresholds for triggering saccades.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/S0304-3940(98)01014-3