Top-Down Control of Saccades as Part of a Generalized Model of Proactive Inhibitory Control

Ballanger B. Top-down control of saccades as part of a generalized model of proactive inhibitory control. J Neurophysiol 102: 2578-2580, 2009. First published August 26, 2009; doi: 10.1152/jn.00717.2009. Lo and colleagues have recently described a recurrent network model of inhibitory control of saccadic eye movements based on neurophysiological observations in the frontal eye field (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) of rhesus monkeys. This model emphasizes the proactive, inhibition-based, tonic neuronal activity that prevents the eye from moving in a countermanding paradigm. In this review I discuss the model with respect to existing literature that the authors did not mention, suggesting that proactive inhibitory control extends far beyond saccadic control and provides an interesting framework to interpret several attentional and movement disorders in humans.