Current Views on the Mechanisms of Eye-Head Coordination

  • D. Guitton
Chapter
Part of the NATO ASI Series book series (ASID, volume 62)

Abstract

Considerable evidence has now accumulated suggesting that the eye movement control system, which to date has been almost exclusively studied in animals whose heads are restrained, is but a special case of a more general gaze control system that controls displacements of the visual axis when the head is unrestrained. The gaze control system was viewed, originally, as being oculocentric in nature: i.e., the trajectory of the visual axis in space was thought to be independent of head motion. A mechanism was proposed whereby the head’s contribution to a gaze shift could be subtracted out by the action of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. This view has been considerably modified in recent years and the gaze control system has now become an elegant example of how the brain controls and coordinates two independently moving body segments.

Keywords

Head Movement Superior Colliculus Semicircular Canal Saccade Amplitude Efference Copy 
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.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1991

Authors and Affiliations

  • D. Guitton
    • 1
  1. 1.Montreal Neurological Institute and Department of Neurology and NeurosurgeryMcGill UniversityMontréalCanada

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