Cortical location of saccadic oculomotor learning using fMRI

Saccadic eye movements are used to quickly shift the fovea to objects of interest using conjugate movements. When a visual task is learned by a subject, the reaction of the response (latency) decreases and the peak velocity increases similar to other motor tasks compared to responses when prediction was not utilized. Motor learning can be achieved using prediction. This research compares functional responses when prediction is utilized to activity from random stimuli that can not be learned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a box car protocol. AFNI (analysis of functional neural imaging) is used to evaluate data and transform it to stereotaxic coordinates. Talairach transformation was used to identify the activated regions of the brain in three dimensions. Preliminary data from two subjects show activity is seen in the occipital gyrus, Brodmann 7, MT/V5, supplementary motor area (SMA), and dorsalateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).