Summary: Report
Does Head Rotation Contribute to Gaze Stability During
Passive Translations?
Min Wei and Dora E. Angelaki
Department of Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Submitted 29 October 2003; accepted in final form 30 November 2003
Wei, Min and Dora E. Angelaki. Does head rotation contribute to gaze
stability during passive translations? J Neurophysiol 91: 1913­1918, 2004.
First published December 3, 2003; 10.1152/jn.01044.2003. Active transla-
tions of human subjects are nearly perfectly compensated by a
combined rotation of both the eyes and the head. Because vestibu-
loocular reflex (VOR) gain is less than perfect during passive
translations with near targets in head-fixed subjects, there is a
possibility that the compensatory head rotation observed during
natural behavior represents a vestibularly driven head reflex [trans-
lational vestibulocollic reflex (TVCR)]. The TVCR could elicit a
horizontal rotation of the head during lateral linear acceleration
that contributes to gaze stabilization. To investigate this hypothe-
sis, we examined whether a horizontal rotation of the head con-
tributes to gaze stability during passive lateral translation in rhesus

Source: Angelaki, Dora - Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis

Collections: Biology and Medicine