Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons^™

Contextual Control Of Orienting Eye-Head Gaze Shifts In The Monkey, Brendan B. Chapman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Vision is one of the principal methods used by primates to acquire information about the surrounding environment. As a result, both humans and monkeys have a highly evolved oculomotor system that functions to rapidly relocate the line of sight to areas of interest. These orienting movements are called gaze shifts. Gaze shifts commonly include the coordinated movement of the eyes-in-head and the head-in-space. This thesis examines the muscular and neural control of orienting head movements.

The contextual control of behavior is important as it allows one to act appropriately in response to different situations. A common task used to examine …