The neurophysiology of pursuit

This chapter summarizes early electrophysiological and lesion studies to elucidate cortical, subcortical and cerebellar mechanisms for extracting visual target motion and programming a smooth-pursuit response. The importance of a descending pursuit pathway from the middle temporal (MT) cortical visual area, which extracts the speed and direction of a moving target, the projections to dorsolateral pontine nuclei, and onto the cerebellum are outlined. Contributions of the cerebellum to pursuit are discussed and models are presented to account for the ways in which floccular gaze Purkinje cells behave during smooth pursuit, combined eye-head tracking, and during head rotation while viewing a stationary target.