Open Peer Commentary Findlay & Walker: Saccade generation
Dopamine and impairment at the executive level
Trevor J. Crawford a1, Annelies Broerse a2andJans Den Boer a2 a1 Mental Health & Neural System Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, United Kingdom
t.crawford@lancaster.ac.uk a2 Department of Biological Psychiatry, State University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands
j.a.den.boer@med.rug.nl
Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia have an impairment in the inhibition of reflexive saccades, as a consequence of a functional impairment of the prefrontal cortex, which has not yet been encapsulated in terms of a formal model. A number of novel and testable hypotheses can be generated from the framework proposed by Findlay & Walker that will stimulate further research. Their framework therefore marks an important step in the development of a comprehensive functional model of saccadic eye movements. Further advances will be assisted by (1) a recognition of important distinctions in the executive control of volitional saccades and (2) addressing the capacity for cross-model integration of spatial information in the generation of the spatial properties of saccadic eye movements.
