Abstract
In animals with good eyesight most eye movements consist of saccades, which rapidly shift the direction of the eye’s axis, and intervals between the saccades (fixations) in which gaze is kept stationary relative to the surroundings. This stability is needed to prevent motion blur, and it is achieved by reflexes which counter-rotate the eye when the head moves. This saccade-and-fixate strategy arose early in fish evolution, when the original function of saccades was to re-centre the eye as the fish turned. In primates, and other foveate vertebrates, saccades took on the new function of directing the fovea to objects of interest in the surroundings. Among invertebrates the same saccade-and-fixate pattern is seen, especially in insects, crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Budelmann BU (2009) Active marine predators: the sensory world of cephalopods. Mar Fresh Behav Physiol 27:59–75
Collett TS, Land MF (1975) Visual control of flight behaviour in the hoverfly Syritta pipiens L. J Comp Physiol 99:1–66
Collewijn H (1970) Oculomotor reactions of cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. J Exp Biol 52:369–384
Collewijn H (1977) Eye and head movements in freely moving rabbits. J Physiol 266:471–498
Easter SS, Johns PR, Heckenlively D (1974) Horizontal compensatory eye movements in goldfish (Carassius auratus). J Comp Physiol 92:23–35
Friedburg C, Allen CP, Mason PJ, Lamb TD (2004) Contribution of cone receptors and post-receptoral mechanisms to the human photopic electroretinogram. J Physiol 556:819–843
Frost BJ (1978) The optokinetic basis of head-bobbing in pigeons. J Exp Biol 74:187–195
Guitton D (1992) Control of eye-head coordination during orienting gaze shifts. Trends Neurosci 15:174–179
Hanlon RT, Messenger JB (1996) Cephalopod behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Land MF (2015) Eye movements of vertebrates and their relation to eye form and function. J Comp Physiol A 201:195–214
Land MF, Nilsson D-E (2012) Animal eyes. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Land MF, Tatler BW (2009) Looking and acting: vision and eye movements in natural behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Necker R (2007) Head-bobbing of walking birds. J Comp Physiol A 193:1177–1183
Ott M (2001) Chameleons have independent eye movements but synchronise both eyes during saccadic prey tracking. Exp Brain Res 139:173–179
Paul H, Nalbach H-O, Varjú D (1990) Eye movements of the rock crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus walking along straight and curved paths. J Exp Biol 154:81–97
Pettigrew JD, Collin SP, Ott M (1999) Convergence of specialized behaviour, eye movements and visual optics in the sandlance (Teleostei) and the chameleon (Reptilia). Curr Biol 9:421–424
Rossel S (1980) Foveal fixation and tracking in the praying mantis. J Comp Physiol A 139:307–331
Schilstra C, van Hateren JH (1998) Stabilizing gaze in flying blowflies. Nature 395:654
Walls GL (1962) The evolutionary history of eye movements. Vision Res 2:69–80
Yorzinski JL, Patricelli GL, Platt ML, Land MF (2015) Eye and head movements shape gaze shifts in Indian peafowl. J Exp Biol 218:3771–3776
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Land, M.F. (2018). The Evolution of Gaze Shifting Eye Movements. In: Hodgson, T. (eds) Processes of Visuospatial Attention and Working Memory. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2018_60
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2018_60
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31025-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-31026-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)