Spontaneous eye movements in goldfish: Oculomotor integrator performance, plasticity, and dependence on visual feedback

B. D. Mensh, E. Aksay, D. D. Lee, H. S. Seung, D. W. Tank

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

To quantify performance of the goldfish oculomotor neural integrator and determine its dependence on visual feedback, we measured the relationship between eye drift-velocity and position during spontaneous gaze fixations in the light and in the dark. In the light, drift-velocities were typically less than 1 deg/s, similar to those observed in humans. During brief periods in darkness, drift-velocities were only slightly larger, but showed greater variance. One hour in darkness degraded fixation-holding performance. These findings suggest that while visual feedback is not essential for online fixation stability, it may be used to tune the mechanism of persistent neural activity in the oculomotor integrator.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)711-726
Number of pages16
JournalVision Research
Volume44
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Sensory Systems
  • Ophthalmology

Keywords

  • Binocular
  • Fixation
  • Gaze
  • Saccade
  • Vergence

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