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Alternating optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) induced by intermittent display of stationary gratings

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Abstract

In this paper, we report a novel optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), which was evoked by stationary gratings presented intermittently. OKN eye movements were accurately measured by the electromagnetic scleral search-coil technique. For the luminance stimuli, alternating OKN was elicited when the interstimulus interval (ISI) ranged from 33 to 83 ms duration and the ISI luminance approximated to the mean luminance of the stimulus grating; for chromatic (red/green) stimuli, the OKN could be evoked in non-isoluminant condition and vanished in the isoluminant condition. It is a plausible explanation that the present OKN, intermittent display-of-gratings-induced OKN (IDG-OKN), might be related to the temporal impulse response of the luminance channel in vision.

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Fig. 1A,B.
Fig. 2A–C.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. James R. Cavanaugh and Dr. Dongsheng Yang for their valuable help on this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (G1999054000) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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  1. Paul Peng

    Present address: School of Optometry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neurobiology of Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, and Laboratory of Visual Information Processing of Biophysics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue-Yang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China

    Jianliang Tong, Paul Peng & Fuchuan Sun

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  1. Jianliang Tong
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  2. Paul Peng
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  3. Fuchuan Sun
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Correspondence to Fuchuan Sun.

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Tong, J., Peng, P. & Sun, F. Alternating optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) induced by intermittent display of stationary gratings. Exp Brain Res 148, 545–548 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-002-1350-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-002-1350-z

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