CORTICAL POTENTIALS PRECEDING PROSACCADES AND ANTISACCADES IN MAN

The antisaccade task has been used widely to assess a frontal lobe def icit. In the present study cortical potentials preceding prosaccades a nd antisaccades were recorded in 7 healthy subjects with 19 scalp elec trodes according to the international 10-20 system. The main results w ere as follows: (1) In both saccade types, a slow presaccadic negative shift was observed at dorso-medial frontal recording sites. The integ ral over these potentials was significantly greater for antisaccades a t the C3, C4 and Ct location than in prosaccades. (2) The integral ove r presaccadic positivity was significantly lower for antisaccades comp ared with prosaccades at the Ct location. It is concluded that these r esults support an important role of the supplementary eye fields in ge nerating antisaccades. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.