Compensatory eye movements produced during fictive swimming of a deafferented, reduced preparation in vitro.

Movement of the head during locomotion must be offset by movement of the eyes in the opposite direction in order to maintain a stable gaze. These compensatory eye movements are classically attributed to ocular reflexes elicited by vestibular stimulation and by slip of the retinal image. In the present study, compensatory eye movements accompanied episodes of fictive swimming expressed in vitro by a reduced, deafferented preparation of the bullfrog larva (tadpole). Thus, there are mechanisms for generation of eye movements, and their coordination with locomotion, that are endogenous to the central nervous system.