title: Spontaneous eye movements in goldfish: oculomotor integrator performance, plasticity, and dependence on visual feedback.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. vison@mensh.com
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Mensh
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aksay
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Seung
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Tank
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D006054:Goldfish / Q000502:physiology*; D009430:Neural Analyzers / Q000502:physiology*; D009484:Neuropsychology; D009802:Oculomotor Nerve / Q000502:physiology*