Evidence for a link between the extra-retinal component of random-onset pursuit and the anticipatory pursuit of predictable object motion

During pursuit of moving targets that temporarily disappear, residual smooth eye movements represent the internal (extra-retinal) component of pursuit. However, this response is dependent on expectation of target reappearance. By comparing responses with and without such expectation during early random-onset pursuit, we examined the temporal development of the extra-retinal component and compared it with anticipatory pursuit, another form of internally driven response. In an initial task (mid-ramp extinction), a moving, random-velocity target was initially visible for 100 or 150 ms but then extinguished for 600 ms before reappearing and continuing to move. Responses comprised an initial visually driven rapid rise in eye velocity, followed by a secondary slower increase during extinction. In a second task (short ramp), with identical initial target presentation but no expectation of target reappearance, the initial rapid rise in eye velocity was followed by decay toward zero. The expectation-dependent difference between responses to these tasks increased in velocity during extinction much more slowly than the initial, visually driven component. In a third task (initial extinction), the moving target was extinguished at motion onset but reappeared 600 ms later. Repetition of identical stimuli evoked anticipatory pursuit triggered by initial target offset. Temporal development and scaling of this anticipatory response, which was based on remembered velocity from prior stimuli, was remarkably similar to and covaried with the difference between mid-ramp extinction and short ramp tasks. Results suggest a common mechanism is responsible for anticipatory pursuit and the extra-retinal component of random-onset pursuit, a finding that is consistent with a previously developed model of pursuit. Copyright © 2008 The American Physiological Society.