Ambivalence in modelling oblique saccades

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Human oblique saccades might be made by synchronized but independent vertical and horizontal pulse generators; we call this the Cartesian theory. Another hypothesis is that the oblique amplitude and angle are coded centrally and trigonometricallyderived signals are sent to the horizontal and vertical muscles (the polar coordinate theory). We took a Cartesian model and cross-coupled the two generators to produce saccades identical to those of a polar coordinate model. This is disproof by counterexample: the experimental evidence claimed to support the polar coordinate model does not necessarily do so. Moreover, the behavior reported for oblique saccades is so variable, contradictory, idiosyncratic, and species-dependent that any model of the central organization of oblique saccades is probably premature.