Strategic Control Flashcards
Voluntary control over which two things are critical for effective strategic orienting?
The fixation reflex and reflexive eye movements (like driving! Requires suppression of instincts because they’re not always the safest)
Ability to control which kind of behaviour is necessary for effective voluntary control?
Reflexive behaviours
Superior colliculus is important for which kind of movement?
Oculomotor reflexes
What is the frontal eye field important for generating?
Voluntary eye movements
Is the cerebral cortex fully developed at birth?
Nope, but their subcortical structures are (this could affect visual orienting!)
What does maturation of cortico-subcortical pathways underpin?
The shift from predominantly exogenously controlled orienting to increasing endogenous control
Provide some evidence for the continuing development of cortico-subcortical pathways in infants
Infants of about 1-2 months in age often show difficulty with looking away from stimuli that they’re fixated on
Immaturity of which cortex contributes to the fact that newborns are mainly controlled by external stimuli
Frontal cortex
At what point is the frontal lobe fully developed?
Around 15 to 20 years old
As the frontal lobe develops, what ability develops alongside it?
Performance on tasks that require strategic control, rather than reflexes
What is the anti-saccade task?
Fixate on the centre, and when a stimulus appears in the periphery, look in the opposite direction of the stimulus
In what two ways can the performance of the anti-saccade task be assessed?
In terms of errors, or in terms of reaction times
What causes a rapid improvement in performance of the anti-saccade task?
Getting older, because that’s associated with maturation of the frontal lobe
The frontal eye field usually imposes inhibitory control over which circuitry?
The ipsilesional oculomotor circuitry - the one that generates reflex saccades
Patients with unilateral frontal eye field damage make abnormally frequent reflexive eye movements toward ipsilesional or contralesional visual signals?
Contralesional! It affects the opposite side
