Vestibular-oculomotor interaction in cat eye-head movements

Abstract

When cats make slow scanning head movements, intersaccadic counterrotary eye movements are driven by the vestibulo-ocular reflex, but reset or forward saccades are not directly affected by vestibular afference. When the movements are rapid (∼200 deg./sec), large (40°), and executed in single step shifts of gaze (whether in the dark or during visual fixation shifts between known targets), there is no longer any clear vestibular effect on any eye movements during the gaze shift. The vestibulo-ocular reflex is active only at the beginning of head rotation and again at its termination as the gaze reaches its goal, even in the absence of vision. It is postulated that head-in-space and eye-in-orbit movements are perfectly monitored to adjust the amplitude of gaze shifts, despite the lack of overt vestibular effects on eye movements.