Computerized study of the velocity of the rapid eye movements.

The average velocity-amplitude characteristics of rapid eye movements (voluntary saccades, and fast phases of caloric and optokinetic [OKN] nystagmus) in normal humans were analyzed with an analogue-digital computer and compared among them. For the same amplitude of movement the velocity of the saccades is considerably greater than that of the fast phases of the OKN, and these in turn are greater than those of their vestibular counterparts. The complexity in oculomotor neurophysiology makes this observation difficult to explain.