LOOKING AROUND - 35 YEARS OF OCULOMOTOR MODELING

Eye movements have attracted an unusually large number of researchers from many disparate fields, especially over the past 35 years. The lur e of this system stemmed from its apparent simplicity of description, measurement, and analysis, as well as the promise of providing a ''win dow in the mind.'' Investigators in areas ranging from biological cont rol systems and neurological diagnosis to applications in advertising and flight simulation expected eye movements to provide clear indicato rs of what the sensory-motor system was accomplishing and what the bra in found to be of interest. The parallels between compensatory eye mov ements and perception of spatial orientation have been a subject for a ctive study in visual-vestibular interaction, where substantial knowle dge has accumulated through experiments largely guided by the challeng e of proving or disproving model predictions. Even though oculomotor c ontrol has arguably benefited more from systems theory than any other branch of motor control, many of the original goals remain largely unf ulfilled. This paper considers some of the promising potential benefit s of eye movement research and compares accomplishments with anticipat ed results. Four topics are considered in greater detail: (i) the defi nition of oculomotor system input and output, (ii) optimization of the eye movement system, (iii) the relationship between compensatory eye movements and spatial orientation through the ''internal model,'' and (iv) the significance of eye movements as measured in (outer) space.