The effect of electromagnetic stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex on eye movements

Elkington, P.T., Kerr, G.K. and Stein, J.S. (1992) The effect of electromagnetic stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex on eye movements. Eye, 6, part 5, 510-514. (doi:10.1038/eye.1992.108). (PMID:1286717)

Record type: Article

Abstract

The posterior parietal cortex probably plays a central role in the sensorimotor transformations needed to make an accurate saccadic eye movement to a visual target. In an attempt to disrupt the normal programming of saccades, we magnetically stimulated the posterior parietal cortex in human volunteers, 80 ms after a small target moved 5 degrees horizontally from the centre of a VDU screen. Saccadic eye movements were recorded and experimental trials were compared with control, unstimulated trials. Magnetic stimulation was triggered in 70% of the trials selected randomly. The main effects of stimulation were: increased divergence of the eyes before each saccade, greater latency of saccade onset, and a tendency to undershoot the target. These results support the hypothesis that the posterior parietal cortex is involved in the programming of accurate saccades to visual targets.

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