Effect of vergence on human ocular following response (OFR)

Anand C Joshi; Matthew J Thurtell; Mark F Walker; Alessandro Serra; R John Leigh

doi:10.1152/jn.00045.2009

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Effect of vergence on human ocular following response (OFR)

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Effect of vergence on human ocular following response (OFR)

Anand C Joshi, Matthew J Thurtell, Mark F Walker, Alessandro Serra and R John Leigh

Journal of neurophysiology, Vol.102(1), pp.513-522

07/2009

DOI: 10.1152/jn.00045.2009

PMCID: PMC2712258

PMID: 19458151

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Abstract

The human ocular following response (OFR) is a preattentive, short-latency visual-field-holding mechanism, which is enhanced if the moving stimulus is applied in the wake of a saccade. Since most natural gaze shifts incorporate both saccadic and vergence components, we asked whether the OFR was also enhanced during vergence. Ten subjects viewed vertically moving sine-wave gratings on a video monitor at 45 cm that had a temporal frequency of 16.7 Hz, contrast of 32%, and spatial frequency of 0.17, 0.27, or 0.44 cycle/deg. In Fixation/OFR experiments, subjects fixed on a white central dot on the video monitor, which disappeared at the beginning of each trial, just as the sinusoidal grating started moving up or down. We measured the change in eye position in the 70- to 150-ms open-loop interval following stimulus onset. Group mean downward responses were larger (0.14 degrees) and made at shorter latency (85 ms) than upward responses (0.10 degrees and 96 ms). The direction of eye drifts during control trials, when gratings remained stationary, was unrelated to the prior response. During vergence/OFR experiments, subjects switched their fixation point between the white dot at 45 cm and a red spot at 15 cm, cued by the disappearance of one target and appearance of the other. When horizontal vergence velocity exceeded 15 degrees/s, motion of sinusoidal gratings commenced and elicited the vertical OFR. Subjects showed significantly (P<0.001) larger OFR when the moving stimulus was presented during convergence (group mean increase of 46%) or divergence (group mean increase of 36%) compared with following fixation. Since gaze shifts between near and far are common during natural activities, we postulate that the increase of OFR during vergence movements reflects enhancement of early cortical motion processing, which serves to stabilize the visual field as the eyes approach their new fixation point.

Visual Fields - physiology

Eye Movements - physiology

Humans

Middle Aged

Male

Reaction Time - physiology

Orientation

Space Perception - physiology

Attention - physiology

Analysis of Variance

Photic Stimulation - methods

Models, Biological

Ocular Physiological Phenomena

Adult

Female

Details

Title: Subtitle: Effect of vergence on human ocular following response (OFR)
Creators: Anand C Joshi - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Daroff-Dell'Osso Laboratory, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-5040, USA
Matthew J Thurtell
Mark F Walker
Alessandro Serra
R John Leigh
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of neurophysiology, Vol.102(1), pp.513-522
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00045.2009
PMID: 19458151
PMCID: PMC2712258
NLM abbreviation: J Neurophysiol
ISSN: 0022-3077
eISSN: 1522-1598
Publisher: United States
Grant note: EY-06717 / NEI NIH HHS R01 EY006717-24 / NEI NIH HHS R01 EY006717 / NEI NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 07/2009
Academic Unit: Neurology; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Record Identifier: 9983980399602771

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