Normal Performance and Expression of Learning in the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) at High Frequencies

Howard Hughes Medical Institute and W. M. Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, California Submitted 13 August 2004; accepted in final form 13 November 2004 The rotatory vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) keeps the visual world stable during head movements by causing eye velocity that is equal in amplitude and opposite in direction to angular head velocity. We have studied the performance of the VOR in darkness for sinusoidal angular head oscillation at frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 50 Hz. At frequencies of 25 Hz, the harmonic distortion of the stimulus and response were estimated to be