Antisaccade task

Saccadic eye movement is primarily controlled by the frontal cortex. The anti-saccade (AS) task is a gross estimation of injury or dysfunction of the frontal lobe, by assessing the brain’s ability to inhibit the reflexive saccade.

To perform the anti-saccade task, a patient is asked to fixate on a motionless target (such as a small dot). A stimulus is then presented to one side of the target. The patient is asked to make a saccade in the direction away from the stimulus. For example, if a stimulus is presented to the left of the motionless target, the patient should look toward the right. Failure to inhibit a reflexive saccade is considered an error.

Neurologic disorders affecting both the frontal cortex or the basal ganglia have shown impaired performance on the anti-saccade task. These include schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and progressive supranuclear palsy. Additionally, disseminated brain disease such as Alzheimer's disease or AIDS dementia also have an increased number of errors.

The anti-saccade test was initially described in 1978 by Peter Hallet when he was a faculty member at the Department of Physiology of the University of Toronto. Many other researchers have used this task, including Guitton et al. and Pierrot-Deseilligny et al. In Guitton’s studies, the AS task was administered to patients whose dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was removed therapeutically for intractable epilepsy. This group was compared to healthy controls and patients whose temporal lobes had been removed, also for seizure relief. Results from Guitton’s studies showed that only patients with frontal lobe lesions performed abnormally on the AS task.

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