Impersistent execution of saccadic eye movements after traumatic brain injury.

A dynamic scoring system was developed to quantitatively resolve the ability of a subject to persistently execute a repeated motor act. Saccadic eye movements in response to pseudo-random and periodic stimuli were examined in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and in normal subjects. Results indicated significantly lower dynamic persistence scores for the former group (50.5 +/- 32.2% vs 94.1 +/- 4.4%). Analysis of the patients' data revealed a stronger association of low scores with right hemisphere damage than with left hemisphere damage (39.4 +/- 28.9% vs 76.6 +/- 15.6%). Results are interpreted in terms of high-level attention impairments, not in terms of specific deficits in eye movement ability.