Saccadic eye movements in basal ganglia disorders

Saccadic eye movements were frequently reported to be abnormal in basal gangla disorders. Recently the reflex saccades were found to be normal in patients with early parkinsonism. We studied the voluntary and reflex saccadic velocities in 20 patients with different basal ganglia disorders to investigate whether or not they have the same effect on carious types of saccadic eye movements. Saccadic velocities, both voluntary and reflex, were found significantly slow in patients with parkinson's diseae as well as in patients with chorea and dystonia. The voluntary saccades were significantly slower than the reflex saccades. The pathophysiologic values of our results were then discussed