IMPERSISTENT EXECUTION OF SACCADIC EYE-MOVEMENTS AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

A dynamic scoring system was developed to quantitatively resolve the a bility of a subject to persistently execute a repeated motor act. Sacc adic eye movements in response to pseudo-random and periodic stimuli w ere examined in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and in norm al subjects. Results indicated significantly lower dynamic persistence scores for the former group (50.5 +/- 32.2% vs 94.1 +/- 4.4%). Analys is of the patients' data revealed a stronger association of low scores with right hemisphere damage than with left hemisphere damage (39.4 /- 28.9% vs 76.6 +/- 15.6%). Results are interpreted in terms of high- level attention impairments, not in terms of specific deficits in eye movement ability.