Neural control of three-dimensional eye and head posture.

The neural commands for gaze control include not only signals that drive the eyes and head from one point to the next, but also those that hold the eyes and head steady at the end of each movement. Studies using microstimulation and chemical inactivation techniques, in head-fixed and head-free macaques, were used to investigate the role of the interstitial nucleus of Cajal (INC) in the production of the latter, tonic signals. The right INC was found to control clockwise-up and clockwise-down components of both eye and head orientation, whereas the left INC was found to control the counterclockwise-up and counterclockwise-down components. Temporary inactivation of the INC left the eyes and head unable to hold their final torsional and vertical positions after each gaze shift. Thus, the INC is strongly implicated in the production of the tonic, step-like commands that maintain eye and head orientations between gaze shifts. In addition, these studies also found that the INC represents the torsional and vertical commands for eye and head orientation using different coordinate coding strategies, optimally matched to the different three-dimensional postural constraints observed in the eye and head.