EYE MOVEMENTS IN ALCOHOLISM AND INDIVIDUALS AT RISK FOR ALCOHOLISM

对人类眼球运动的研究为检查各种认知功能提供了一种非常有用的方法。很明显，眼跳运动的潜伏期和目标与注意力有关。不那么明显的是，认知的其他方面，如短期记忆、准备状态和对上下文不恰当反应的抑制，也可以使用眼动技术进行评估。短期记忆、准备阶段和对背景不恰当反应的抑制构成了前额叶皮质的核心功能，前额叶皮质是大脑中参与控制高级认知过程的区域。我们使用了许多不同的任务来引发眼跳，包括进行/不进行任务和延迟响应任务。这些任务允许我们通过测量记忆引导的眼跳的准确性和潜伏期，以及应该被抑制的背景不适当的眼跳的频率，来独立评估前额叶皮质的核心功能。使用这些任务，我们已经证明，精神分裂症患者在前额叶皮质功能的所有三个核心方面都受到了损害，而患有注意力缺陷多动障碍(ADHD)的儿童只在抑制上下文不适当眼跳的能力方面受到了损害。同样，成年酗酒者也很难抑制不恰当的扫视。酗酒者的平稳追踪眼球运动是完全正常的；然而，初步证据表明，磁共振测量的小脑体积与平稳追踪表现相关。-行为研究、神经科学、电生理学/EEG-人类受试者

The study of human eye movements provides an extremely useful approach to the examination of a variety of cognitive functions. It is obvious that the latency and goal of saccadic eye movements are related to attention. What is not so obvious is that other aspects of cognition such as short-term memory, preparatory set, and inhibition of context inappropriate responses can also be assessed using eye movement techniques. Short-term memory, preparatory set, and inhibition of context inappropriate responses constitute core functions of the prefrontal cortex, the brain region most involved in the control of higher order cognitive processes. We have used a number of different tasks to elicit saccades, including Go/No Go tasks and delayed response tasks. These tasks allow us to independently assess core functions of the prefrontal cortex by measuring the accuracy and latency of memory guided saccades, as well as the frequency of context inappropriate saccades that should be inhibited. Using these tasks we have demonstrated that schizophrenics are impaired in all three core aspects of prefrontal cortex function while children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are impaired in only their ability to inhibit context inappropriate saccades. Similarilly adult alcoholics also have difficulty inhibiting context inappropriate saccades. The smooth pursuit eye movements of alcoholics are completely normal; however, preliminary evidence suggests that cerebellar volume measured by MRI is correlated with smooth pursuit performance. - behavioral research, neurosciences, electrophysiology/EEG - Human Subjects