Effective connectivity in cortical networks underlying visual motion processing and ocular-motor control

Introduction: Human ocular motor functions and visual motion processing have mostly been assumed to rely on segregated networks based on recordings in non-human primates and conventional fMRI studies. Voluntary optokinetic ("look") nystagmus in the horizontal plane, however, contains all essential forms of eye movements whilst at the same time representing a visual motion-tracking task. Aim of the presented approach was to derive an integrative model (“common trunk”) for ocular motor and visual motion networks by means of dynamic causal modeling (DCM). Methods: The differenzial effects of a horizontal optokineti…