Neuroscientists have long been interested in how efficiently we solve proba
bilistic sensory problems. In order to explore analogous questions in the m
otor domain, we observed the eye movements of human subjects attempting to
track a visual target which moved stochastically across a computer screen.
The subjects' behavior was then compared to a mathematically-derived bound
on the best performance possible in such a task. The subjects were able to
perform surprisingly near the optimum under the conditions examined. These
results constitute an important step in determining the efficiency of the n
ervous system in the context of ongoing behavior. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.