We studied voluntary saccades in 44 patients undergoing Wada testing before surgery for intractable epilepsy. After intracarotid injection of barbiturate, and while they were hemiplegic, patients could still make voluntary saccades toward or away from the side of injection. Sustained ipsiversive deviation of gaze was not noted. Saccades made away from the side of injection were slower than ipsilateral saccades in only 3 of 10 tests. These data support the hypothesis of parallel, independent pathways from the frontal eye fields and from the superior colliculi to the brainstem reticular nuclei that generate saccades.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.