Summary
Rabbits were placed inside a striped drum, which was rotated at selected constant speeds around the animal's sagittal or bitemporal axis. Eye position was recorded by means of the scleral search coil system. A regular vertical or rotatory optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) was constantly obtained. The ratioslow phase eye velocity/drum velocity (=gain) amounted to 0.7–0.9 for stimulus velocities up to 1°/sec, and declined progressively for higher stimulus velocities. The overall input-output relations for torsional and vertical OKN were very similar to those found previously for horizontal OKN. Upward and downward motion were equally effective as a stimulus for each eye apart. The same was true for nasal and temporal rotation.
In darkness, rotatory and vertical drift of the eye was seen, as described before for the horizontal plane. These findings support the hypothesis that the OKN system stabilizes the eyes on the (non-rotating) visual surroundings.
It is proposed that vertical, torsional as well as horizontal OKN are mediated by sub-sets of similar retinal direction-selective cells as described in the literature.
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Collewijn, H., Noorduin, H. Vertical and torsional optokinetic eye movements in the rabbit. Pflugers Arch. 332, 87–95 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00589086
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00589086