Microsaccade Control Signals in the Cerebellum

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2458-14.2015
• Publication Date: 2015-02-26T06:43:23Z
• Authors: Daniel Arnstein; Marc Junker; Aleksandra Smilgin; Peter W. Dicke; Peter Thier
• Keywords: Microsaccade

Microsaccades, the small saccades made when we try to keep eyes still, were once believed be inconsequential for vision, but recent studies suggest that they can precisely relocate gaze tiny visual targets. Because cerebellum is necessary motor precision, investigated whether microsaccades may exploit this neural machinery in monkeys. Almost all vermal Purkinje cells, which provide eye-related output of cerebellar cortex, found increase or decrease their simple spike firing rate during microsaccades. At both single-cell and population level, microsaccade-related activity was highly similar macrosaccade-related observed a continuous representation saccade amplitude spanned macrosaccade microsaccade domains. Our results cerebellum's role fine-tuning eye movements extends even oculomotor system's smallest add growing list observations call into question classical categorical distinction between macrosaccades.