Anticipatory smooth-pursuit eye movements in man and monkey.

A fundamental problem in the generation of goal-directed behaviour is caused by the inevitable latency of biological sensory systems. Behaviour which is fully synchronised with the triggering sensory event can only be executed if the occurrence of this event can be predicted based on prior information. Smooth-pursuit eye movements are a classical and well-established example of goal-directed behaviour. The execution of these eye movements is thought to be very closely linked to the processing of visual motion signals. Here, we show that healthy human subjects as well as trained rhesus monkeys are able to initiate smooth-pursuit eye movements in anticipation of a moving target. These anticipatory pursuit eye movements are scaled to the velocity of the expected target. Furthermore, we can exclude the possibility that anticipatory pursuit is simply an after-pursuit of the previous trial. Visually-guided pursuit is only marginally affected by the presence of a structured background. However, the presence of a structured background severely impedes the ability to perform anticipatory pursuit. More generally, our data provide additional evidence that the cognitive oculomotor repertoires of human and monkeys are similar, at least with respect of smooth-pursuit in the prediction of an appearing target.

The phasing of circadian rhythms in mice kept under normal or short photoperiods.

Mammals represent a multi-oscillatory system. Not only different rhythmic function but also a certain rhythmic function may be controlled by several oscillators. Also, the LD cycle, though being the main zeitgeber, may have different effects on different rhythmic functions. The aim of the present study was to investigate putative changes of internal phase relationships between different rhythms and their phase relationship with respect to the light-dark cycle following a gradual lengthening of the dark time. The investigations were carried out on adult female mice (HaZ:ICR). Animals were initially kept in a 12:12 h LD cycle. The dark time was then lengthened once a week by delaying the time of lights-on by 1 h until an L/D=6:18 h was reached. The motor activity was recorded continuously. The daily profiles of food intake, liver glycogen and melatonin in the serum and the pineal gland were estimated as transverse studies under L/D=12:12 h and L/D=6:18 h. Under short-day conditions (L/D=6:18 h), the evening onset of the main maximum of motor activity and food intake was delayed in relation to lights-off and the onset of the secondary maximum in the morning was advanced in relation to lights-on. Similar phase changes were found with respect to the onset of glycogen synthesis and its breakdown. In the case of melatonin, the rise and the fall occurred earlier or later, respectively, and the phase differences with respect to lights-off and lights-on became smaller. If the mid-point between the evening and morning onsets of activity and food intake and between the rises and falls of glycogen and melatonin concentrations are considered, then the changes in all rhythmic functions were similar. Consequently, the phase relationships between different rhythmic functions and with respect to the light-dark cycle, and thus the internal and the external temporal order, were preserved under different light-dark ratios. Also, the results are in good accordance with a modified two-oscillator model where lights-off triggers advances of an evening oscillator and lights-on delays a morning oscillator.