Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movement performance in a prefrontal leukotomy patient

The authors wished to examine the role of the prefrontal cortex in oculomot or performance. They assessed smooth pursuit: and saccadic performance in a patient with schizophrenia who had undergone a bilateral prefrontal leukot omy. Her performance on neuropsychological test measures sensitive to front al robe functioning were also examined. Against a background of intact inte llectual and neurological functioning, the patient displayed a dissociation in premotor and prefrontal functioning. Smooth pursuit performance was wit hin normal limits, as were the patient's finger tapping scores. In contrast , the patient performed poorly on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and verb al and design fluency tasks. Similarly, her performance on the antisaccade task was markedly deviant. Despite advanced age and a frontal leukotomy, th is patient with schizophrenia displayed intact smooth pursuit, indicating t hat the frontal cortex is not necessary for normal smooth pursuit performan ce.