Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements

Once the target object is identified, a smooth follow-up eye movement is used to track the object as we or the object moves through the environment. Smooth tracking of ocular movements is a slow eye movement following the target and is used to maintain its position within the fovea. The smooth tracking eye movements studied here work with the eyeballs and maintain an angle between them. Visual stimuli are often needed to initiate smooth tracking of ocular movements (Rashbass, 1961). By reducing the available retinal information, Steinbach (1976) reports that only "recognition" is necessary for smooth tracking, by making the perceived motion inaccurate or fantastic .

Laboratory studies of schizophrenic patients revealed various abnormalities including smooth tracking of irregularities in eye movements, psychophysiological response to sensory stimuli, and concentration of attention. The study of neuropsychological symptoms in patients with schizophrenia was first carried out in the 1950's and continues until now. Individual neuropsychological examinations are designed to measure the functions provided by a particular area or system of the brain. Early discovery in this area is that patients with schizophrenia are psychiatric groups whose results in psycho-psychological tests are indistinguishable from those with known brain injury. The results of the study show that patients with schizophrenia have systemic brain dysfunction. However, the patient showed the most consistent defects in attention and memory testing, and showed frontal lobe, temporal lobe and hippocampal dysfunction.

As their names suggest, we use them to keep track of moving objects: a group of people rolling in a playground, a boat sailing on the horizon, or a group flying. An attractive aspect of smoothly pursuing bird movements is that you can not forge them. You can track real moving objects using smooth tracking, but you can not track imaginary objects. You can convince yourself with a small experiment that you can do it yourself or with the help of a partner as follows.