Frontal eye field

The frontal eye field (engl. Frontal eye fields ; FEF) is a defined area of the cerebral cortex and belongs to the premotor cortex . It takes over the highest hierarchical level in the control of the external eye muscles .

Based on the results of primate studies, it is located in Brodmann area 8, while in humans there are indications that this localization deviates and that the frontal eye field is instead located in Brodmann area 6. The frontal eye field controls several core areas in the diencephalon and midbrain ( Formatio reticularis pontis paramediana , Nucleus prepositus hypoglossi , Nucleus interstitialis ), which in turn control the motor nucleus of the eye muscles ( Nucleus nervi oculomotorii , Nucleus nervi trochlearis , Nucleus nervi abducentis ). Damage to the frontal eye field means that voluntary eye movements are no longer possible. There is a conjugated deviation of the line of sight ( déviation conjuguée ) on the side of the damage (focal point, Prévost sign).

literature

Karl Zilles , Gerd Rehkämper: Functional Neuroanatomy. Textbook and atlas . Springer, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-540-54690-1 .

Individual evidence

↑ L. PETIT, VP CLARK, J. INGEHOLM, and JV HAXBY: Dissociation of Saccade-Related and Pursuit-Related Activation in Human Frontal Eye Fields as Revealed by fMRI . In: J. Neurophysiol. . 77, 1997, pp. 3386-3390.

[Petit&etal-1] L. PETIT, VP CLARK, J. INGEHOLM, and JV HAXBY: Dissociation of Saccade-Related and Pursuit-Related Activation in Human Frontal Eye Fields as Revealed by fMRI . In: J. Neurophysiol. . 77, 1997, pp. 3386-3390.