When humans are roll-tilted around the naso-occipital axis, both eyes roll or tort in the opposite direction to roll-tilt, a phenomenon known as ocular counterroll (OCR). While the magnitude of OCR is primarily determined by vestibular, somatosensory, and proprioceptive input, direction of gaze also plays a major role. The aim of this study was to measure the interaction between some of these f...

Visual processing is highly sensitive to stimulus orientation; for example, face perception is drastically worse when faces are oriented inverted vs. upright. However, stimulus orientation must be established in relation to a particular reference frame, and in most studies, several reference frames are conflated. Which reference frame(s) matter in the perception of faces? Here we describe a sim...

The ocular counterroll (OCR) reflex generates partially compensatory torsional eye movements during static head roll tilt. We assessed the influence of age, viewing distance and target complexity on the OCR across the age span (13-63 years; n=47), by recording eye movements during head-on-body roll tilt (0+/-40 degrees in 5 degrees steps) while subjects viewed simple vs. complex targets at 0.33...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether static ocular counterroll (OCR) gain is reduced during viewing of an earth-fixed vs a head-fixed target. METHODS Twelve healthy individuals were recruited. The target consisted of a red fixation cross against a grid pattern at a viewing distance of 33 cm. The target was mounted on a wall (earth fixed) or was coupled to the head (head fixed). Changes in mean to...

Transformation of head-fixed otolith signals into a space-fixed frame of reference is essential for perception of self-orientation and ocular motor control. In monkeys the nodulus and ventral uvula of the vestibulo-cerebellum facilitate this transformation by computing an internal estimate of direction of gravity. These experimental findings motivated the hypothesis that degeneration of the ves...

Saccade-related burst neurons in the paramedian pontine reticular formation (PPRF) of the head-restrained monkey provide a phasic velocity signal to extraocular motoneurons for the generation of rapid eye movements. In the superior colliculus (SC), which directly projects to the PPRF, the motor command for conjugate saccades with the head restrained in a roll position is represented in a refere...

Retinal information is two-dimensional, whereas eye movements are three-dimensional. The oculomotor system solves this degrees-of-freedom problem by constraining eye positions to zero torsion (Listing's law) and determining how eye velocities change with eye position (half-angle rule). Here we test whether the oculomotor plant, in the absence of well-defined neural commands, can implement these...

Methods: Twelve healthy individuals were recruited. The target consisted of a red fixation cross against a grid patternataviewingdistanceof33cm.Thetargetwasmounted onawall(earthfixed)orwascoupledtothehead(headfixed). Changes in mean torsional eye position were plotted as a function of head position steps (0°±25° in 5° steps), and sigmoidal fits were performed. Mean static OCR gain was calculate...

Panoramic visual cues, as generated by the objects in the environment, provide the brain with important information about gravity direction. To derive an optimal, i.e., Bayesian, estimate of gravity direction, the brain must combine panoramic information with gravity information detected by the vestibular system. Here, we examined the individual sensory contributions to this estimate psychometr...