Using the eye-movement system to control the head

We tested the hypothesis that A.I., a subject who has total ophthalmoplegia, resulting in a lack of eye movements, used her head to orientate in a qualitatively similar way to eye-based orientating of control subjects. We used four classic eye-movement paradigms and measured A.I.'s head movements while she performed the tasks. These paradigms were (i) the gap paradigm, (ii) the remote-distracter effect, (iii) the anti-saccade paradigm, and (iv) tests of saccadic suppression. In all cases, A.I.'s head saccades were qualitatively similar to previously reported eye-movement data. We conclude that A.I.'s head movements are probably controlled by the same neural mechanisms that control eye movements in unimpaired subjects.