Volume 5, Number 7, Article 4, Pages 640-649 doi:10.1167/5.7.4 http://journalofvision.org/5/7/4/ ISSN 1534-7362
Short-term predictive changes in the dynamics of disparity vergence eye movements
Tara L. Alvarez
Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
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Mayur Bhavsar
Department of Biology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
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John L. Semmlow
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
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Michael T. Bergen
Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
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Claude Pedrono
Essilor International S.A., Saint Maur, France
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Abstract

Repetitive stimulation of the disparity vergence system to large convergent step stimuli has been shown to increase the dynamics of subsequent responses to smaller step stimuli. Here we show that decreases in the dynamics of both disparity convergence and divergence eye movements can be induced using a frequently occurring small amplitude conditioning stimulus to modify responses to a larger, occasionally presented test stimulus. In one experiment, a simple conditioning stimulus consisting of repetitive 1° step stimuli was used to modify the dynamic vergence response to an occasional 4° step test stimulus. An experimental trial consisted of three phases: baseline, conditioning, and recovery. The baseline and recovery phases used only the 4° test stimuli. The dynamic characteristics of the responses to test stimuli were quantified by measuring the magnitude of the peak velocity. A statistically significant change was observed between the dynamics of conditioned responses compared to baseline and recovery responses indicting modification by the conditioning stimuli. During recovery, the response dynamics returned to levels near baseline levels showing that the decrease in response dynamics was caused by the conditioning stimulus, not fatigue. Another experiment showed that the response dynamics to large stimuli could be decreased whereas the dynamics of small stimuli could be increased by the same intermediate conditioning stimulus. Other experiments suggest that the modifications are due to a predictive mechanism. The results indicate that the dynamics of disparity vergence eye movements are malleable and depend to some extent on the amplitude of preceding stimuli.

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History
Received February 9, 2004; published August 31, 2005
Citation
Alvarez, T. L., Bhavsar, M., Semmlow, J. L., Bergen, M. T., & Pedrono, C. (2005). Short-term predictive changes in the dynamics of disparity vergence eye movements. Journal of Vision, 5(7):4, 640-649, http://journalofvision.org/5/7/4/, doi:10.1167/5.7.4.
Keywords
eye movements, disparity vergence, prediction, oculomotor dynamics, oculomotor control
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