Anatomical correlate of smooth pursuit deficit in patients with cerebellar lesions

Humans are able to stabilize the images of moving targets on the retina by means of smooth pursuit eye movements. After the pontine level, all smooth pursuit pathways pass through the cerebellum. Previous studies gave evidence that two specific lesion sites within the cerebellum cause smooth pursuit disorders: those of the flocculus/paraflocculus and the vermis including lobule VI, VII, the uvula, and the deep cerebellar nuclei. Up to now, there have been only single lesion studies in patients with smooth pursuit disorders. Thus, we used new lesion mapping techniques to determine which cerebellar structures are…