Transient torsion during and after saccades

Abstract

In five normal subjects, we analyzed uncalled for torsion (blips) during and after horizontal and vertical saccades. Torsion was defined as movement out of Listing's plane. During horizontal saccades in downward gaze the abducting eye extorted and the adducting eye intorted. The direction of the blips reversed in upward gaze. Peak torsional amplitudes (up to 1-2 deg) were always reached during saccades; drifts back to Listing's plane outlasted the saccades. Torsion of the extorting eye was larger than that of the intorting eye, producing a transient positive cyclovergence. Torsion and cyclovergence evoked by vertical saccades were also stereotyped in each eye, but showed idiosyncratic differences among subjects. We conclude that Listing's law is violated during saccades. Transient saccade-evoked torsion might reflect properties of the three-dimensional velocity-to-position integrator and/or the ocular plant.