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Spatially Oriented Behavior pp 155–174Cite as

Development of Optokinetic Nystagmus and Effects of Abnormal Visual Experience During Infancy

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Abstract

Shortly after birth, a human infant exhibits binocular optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in response to patterns moving horizontally in both directions (Fantz, Ordy, & Udelf, 1962; Gorman, Cogan, & Gellis, 1957). When one eye of the infant is covered, however, OKN can only be elicited by a stimulus moving in the temporonasal direction (Atkinson, 1979). This early OKN asymmetry diminishes over the first 3–5 months until OKN following is elicited equally well by stimuli moving either away from or toward the midline (Atkinson, 1979; Naegele & Held, 1980,1982). A similar progression toward symmetrical monocular OKN occurs in normal kittens (van Hof-van Duin, 1976, 1978). As in the case of normal human infants, the early deficit consists of an impairment in the ability of the organism to exhibit optokinetic following when patterns move in the nasotemporal direction. In contrast to species that show this pattern of optomotor development, other species, such as the rabbit, guinea pig, and some birds and lizards, exhibit a permanent optokinetic bias for movement in the temporonasal direction (Fukuda & Tokita, 1957; Huizinga & Meulen, 1951; Tauber & Atkin, 1968).

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Authors
  1. Janice R. Naegele
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  2. Richard Held
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02139, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Alan Hein

  2. INSERM Unité 94, F-69500, Bron, France

    Marc Jeannerod

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© 1983 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Naegele, J.R., Held, R. (1983). Development of Optokinetic Nystagmus and Effects of Abnormal Visual Experience During Infancy. In: Hein, A., Jeannerod, M. (eds) Spatially Oriented Behavior. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5488-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5488-1_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5490-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5488-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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