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Journal of Comparative Physiology A

, Volume 156, Issue 2, pp 199–208 | Cite as

Eye movements in the African cichlid fish,Haplochromis burtoni

  • Russell D. Fernald
Article

Summary

  1. 1.

    There are three distinct kinds of coordinated eye-body movements in the African cichlid fish,Haplochromis burtoni, as revealed by cinematographic analysis: a) eye movements without coordinated body movements (voluntary saccades); b) nystagmus consisting of compensatory eye movements during turning of the body and a reset saccade movement of the eyes; c) fast body turns executed without corresponding eye movements.

     
  2. 2.

    During voluntary scanning eye movements the eyes usually move in temporal synchrony and often the result is a decreased angle between the eyes (increased convergence of the eyes).

     
  3. 3.

    Compensatory eye movements produce successive fixation of the gaze direction during a slow rotation of the body which serve to maintain the angular orientation of the eyes in space. No systematic change in convergence is associated with these turns.

     
  4. 4.

    Fast body turns are very rapid body turns without compensatory eye movements which occur almost exclusively during social interactions.

     
  5. 5.

    When the animals are freely swimming, these three types of eye-body movements occur in all possible sequences.

     

Keywords

Social Interaction Body Movement Systematic Change Slow Rotation Distinct Kind 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Abbreviations

BO

body

CF

compensation factor

LE

left eye

RE

right eye

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1985

Authors and Affiliations

  • Russell D. Fernald
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of NeuroscienceUniversity of OregonEugeneUSA

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