Saccadic system plasticity in humans

Abstract

A subject with a medial rectus paresis secondary to a partial third nerve palsy was forced to use the affected eye for six days while the good eye was constantly patched. Saccadic eye movements were carefully measured each day; the gain increased, with a time constant of 0.85 day. The patch was then switched to the paretic eye and the gain decreased, with a time constant of 1.54 days. This demonstrated central nervous system plasticity of the pulse and step of neural activity responsible for the generation of saccades in the adult human. In addition to gain changes, postsaccadic drift velocity and saccadic velocity/amplitude relationship alterations during the patching are reported. A major ..