Predictive smooth pursuit of complex two-dimensional trajectories demonstrated by perturbation responses in monkeys.

Two-dimensional sum-of-sines waveforms were pursued by the eye with very small phase delays compared with visual feedback delays estimated in the same monkeys. Processing delays in making smooth corrections averaged 90 msec after infrequent right-angle perturbations from a circular trajectory. These feedback delays were much larger than component phase delays during pursuit that averaged: 10 msec for sinusoids, 3 msec for circles, 20 msec for sum-of-two-sines trajectories, and 19 msec for sum-of-three-sines trajectories. This suggests that predictive control can play a strong role during tracking for a variety of simple and complex target trajectories.