Stereopsis outweighs gravity in the control of the eyes.

Abstract

The eyes are controlled by multiple brain circuits, some phylogenetically old and some new, whose aims may conflict. Old otolith reflexes counterroll the eyes when the head tilts relative to gravity. Newer vergence mechanisms coordinate the eyes to aid stereoptic vision. We show that counterroll hinders stereopsis, weakly when you look into the distance but strongly when you look near. The resolution of this conflict is that counterroll virtually vanishes when monkeys look close, i.e., stereopsis overrides gravity-driven reflexes but only on near gaze. This balance between gyroscopic and stereoptic mechanisms explains many other puzzling features of primate gaze control, such as the weakness of our otolith-ocular reflexes even during far viewing and the strange geometry of the primate counterpitch reflex, which rolls the eyes clockwise when monkeys look leftward while their heads are tipped nose up, but rolls them counterclockwise when the monkeys look rightward, and reverses this pattern when the head is tipped nose down.