Pursuits are primarily controlled by which area?

The correct answer is that pursuits are primarily controlled by the ipsilateral parietal lobe. The parietal lobe plays a significant role in visual attention and processing spatial information, which is essential for smooth pursuit eye movements. These movements require the integration of sensory input to track moving objects smoothly over time, and the parietal lobe helps in processing the location and motion of these objects.

During smooth pursuit, the visual information regarding the target's motion is sent to the corresponding area of the parietal lobe. This area is responsible for integrating visual inputs and guiding eye movements accordingly, particularly in keeping the moving target within the visual field. The pathways originating from the parietal lobe are crucial for generating motor commands that ensure the eyes follow the moving object seamlessly.

In contrast, while the frontal eye fields are critical for initiating saccadic eye movements and for aspects of voluntary eye control, they are not primarily responsible for the smooth tracking movements characteristic of pursuits. Thus, they do not play the predominant role in the function specified in the question.