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Journal of Experimental Biology 131,323-336 (1987)
Published by Company of Biologists 1987

Spontaneous and Evoked Eye Movements in Polyphemus Pediculus (Cladocera: Crustacea): A Case of Open-Loop Tracking?

STEPHEN YOUNG ¹ and VICTORIA A. TAYLOR ¹

¹ Department of Pure and Applied Biology, Imperial College Silwood Park, Ascot, Berks SL5 7PY

1. Polyphemus eye movements were recorded in both pitching and yawing planes, both in a static visual environment and with a sinusoidally moving stimulus.

2. Spontaneous eye movements (average amplitude 1.7°) had different properties in the two planes, with trembling movements predominating in the pitching plane. A contour-sharpening function is proposed for these movements.

3. An attempt to analyse the eye movement response system using a Bode diagram shows a very poor fit to the data, leading to the conclusion that a closed-loop control system is an inappropriate model in this case.

4. The evoked eye movements are most convincingly represented by a model in which the time the stimulus takes to traverse a restricted sensitive zone in the central region of the eye controls the duration of a subsequent constant angular velocity saccade. The direction of the response movement follows the direction of the stimulus. A small-object tracking function is proposed for these movements.

Key words: Polyphemus, Cladocera, eye movement, open-loop, control

Accepted on April 7, 1987