Binocular coupling in chameleon saccade generation

Abstract.

Chameleons are capable of making a saccade with one eye while the other does not move. This virtually unique feature poses questions regarding the organization of the saccadic system of the chameleon. By comparing real data with a simulated test signal, we studied whether the saccade generation of the left and right eye can be considered as truly independent. This appeared not to be the case, since there was an increased likelihood to start saccades in close temporal proximity in the two eyes. However, the coupling does not reflect a common saccadic motor signal for both eyes, since even saccades that were made in close temporal proximity did not have correlated metrics.