A new framework for investigating both normal and abnormal eye movements

Any comprehensive framework for understanding eye movements has to include both normal and abnormal eye movement behaviour. One approach which is applicable to the entire range of oculomotor behaviour is provided by the techniques of nonlinear dynamics. The stability of models of the oculomotor system can be analysed in terms of the characteristics of their fixed points and periodic orbits, and the method of delays can be used to recover such parameters from measurements of eye position. Within this framework, quantitative comparisons can be made between the predictions of different models, and both normal and clinical eye movement recordings.