Three-dimensional eye-head coordination is implemented downstream from the superior colliculus

How the brain transforms two-dimensional visual signals into multi-dimensional motor commands, and subsequently how it constrains the redundant degrees of freedom, are fundamental problems in sensorimotor control. During fixations between gaze shifts, the redundant torsional degree of freedom is determined by various neural constraints. For example, the eye- and head-in-space are constrained by Donders' law, whereas the eye-in-head obeys Listing's law. However, where and how the brain implements these laws is not yet known. In this study, we show that eye and head movements, elicited by unilateral microstimulations of the superior colliculus (SC) in head-free monkeys, obey the same Donders' strategies observed in normal behavior (i.e., Listing's law for final eye positions and the Fick strategy for the head). Moreover, these evoked movements showed a pattern of three-dimensional eye-head coordination, consistent with normal behavior, where the eye is driven purposely out of Listing's plane during the saccade portion of the gaze shift in opposition to a subsequent torsional vestibuloocular reflex slow phase, such that the final net torsion at the end of each head-free gaze shift is zero. The required amount of saccade-related torsion was highly variable, depending on the initial position of the eye and head prior to a gaze shift and the size of the gaze shift, pointing to a neural basis of torsional control. Because these variable, context-appropriate torsional saccades were correctly elicited by fixed SC commands during head-free stimulations, this shows that the SC only encodes the horizontal and vertical components of gaze, leaving the complexity of torsional organization to downstream control systems. Thus we conclude that Listing's and Donders' laws of the eyes and head, and their three-dimensional coordination mechanisms, must be implemented after the SC.