title: Geometrical properties of three-dimensional binocular eye position in light sleep.
abstract: We examined three-dimensional binocular positions in the alert and sleepy monkeys. In contrast to the tightly yoked eye movements observed in alertness, the eyes were usually converged, vertically misaligned and had a much larger torsional variability during light sleep. While in alertness eye position vectors were confined to fronto-parallel planes, the corresponding planes were rotated temporally (e.g. leftward for the left eye) in light sleep. There was no correlation between temporal rotation of the eye position planes and horizontal vergence. All these observations can be explained by randomly innervated extraocular muscles that are rotating the two eyes about anatomically determined axes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 26, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland. cabingcal@nos.usz.ch
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cabungcal
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Misslisch
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hepp
authors.forename: B J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Hess
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology