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| Volume 4, Number 7, Article 7, Pages 604-625 |
doi:10.1167/4.7.7 |
http://journalofvision.org/4/7/7/ |
ISSN 1534-7362 |
Congenital nystagmus: Hypotheses for its genesis and complex waveforms within a behavioral ocular motor system model
Jonathan B. Jacobs |
Ocular Motor Neurophysiology Laboratory, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, & Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA |
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Louis F. Dell’Osso |
Ocular Motor Neurophysiology Laboratory, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, & Departments of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA |
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Abstract
Attempts to simulate dysfunction within ocular
motor system (OMS) models capable of exhibiting known ocular motor behavior
have provided valuable insight into the structure of the OMS required for
normal visual function. The pendular waveforms of congenital nystagmus (CN)
appear to be quite complex, composed of a sustained sinusoidal oscillation
punctuated by braking saccades and foveating saccades followed by periods of
extended foveation. Previously, we verified that these quick phases are
generated by the same mechanism as voluntary saccades. We propose a computer
model of the ocular motor system that simulates the responses of individuals
with pendular CN (including its variable waveforms) based on the instability
exhibited by the normal pursuit subsystem and its interaction with other
components of the normal ocular motor control system. Fixation data from
subjects with CN using both infrared and magnetic search coil oculography were
used as templates for our simulations. Our OMS model simulates data from
individuals with CN during fixation and in response to complex stimuli. The
use of position and velocity efference copy to suppress oscillopsia is the key
element in allowing for normal ocular motor behavior. The model’s responses
to target steps, pulse-steps, ramps, and step-ramps support the hypothetical
explanation for the conditions that result in sustained pendular oscillation
and the rules for the corrective saccadic responses that shape this underlying
oscillation into the well-known family of pendular CN waveforms: pendular (P),
pseudopendular (PP), pendular with foveating saccades (Pfs), and
pseudopendular with foveating saccades (PPfs). Position error
determined the saccadic amplitudes of foveating saccades, whereas
stereotypical braking saccades were not dependent on visual information.
Additionally, we propose a structure and method of operation for the fixation
subsystem, and use it to prolong the low-velocity intervals immediately
following foveating saccades. The model’s robustness supports the hypothesis
that the pendular nystagmus seen in CN is due to a loss of damping of the
normal pursuit-system velocity oscillation (functionally, it is pursuit-system
nystagmus—PSN).
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