08/09/2026
WHEN YOUR EYES MISS THE TARGET šš
Saccades are the rapid eye movements used to shift attention from one target to another. Athletes rely on them constantlyātracking the puck, scanning the ice, locating teammates, reading defenders and rapidly changing focus between near and far targets.
After a sports concussion, these movements may become less accurate. The eyes can undershoot a target, called a hypometric saccade, or overshoot it, called a hypermetric saccade. The nervous system must then generate one or more corrective saccades to reach the intended target. This loss of accuracy is known as saccadic dysmetria.
The cerebellum plays an important role in this process. The oculomotor vermis and caudal fastigial nuclei help calibrate the size, direction and timing of each saccade. However, saccades also depend on a much larger network involving the frontal and parietal eye fields, superior colliculus, brainstem burst generators, attention systems and vestibular pathways.
When this network is not functioning efficiently, an athlete may experience:
ā¢ Difficulty tracking the play
ā¢ Slower visual scanning
ā¢ Losing their place while reading
ā¢ Eye strain or headaches
ā¢ Delayed reactions
ā¢ Motion or visual sensitivity
ā¢ A sense that the eyes cannot keep up
At The Functional Neurology Center, advanced eye tracking allows us to measure saccadic accuracy, latency, velocity and corrective eye movements. These findings can help identify patterns that may be missed during a routine examination and guide individualized visual, vestibular and cerebellar rehabilitation.
Saccadic dysmetria does not diagnose a concussionāor prove structural cerebellar damageāby itself. It must be interpreted alongside symptoms, neurological findings, balance testing, vestibular function, cervical assessment and the athleteās clinical history.
The goal is not simply to make the athlete symptom-free. It is to determine whether the neurological systems required for safe, high-speed performance are truly working together again.
š The Functional Neurology Center
Minnetonka, Minnesota
š TheFNC.com
š§ [email protected]
WHATEVER IT TAKES.
DC DACNB
