The spontaneous eye movements in the awake kitten

The spontaneous eye movements were analysed comparatively in the kitten and in the cat. The eye movements were recorded in the dark by a magnetic search coil technique. The spatio-temporal organization of eye movements in the kitten has a prevailing vertical orientation and differs completely from that of the cat. In the kitten the amplitude of eye movements is smaller than in the cat and only a few movements are followed by fixation. It results, by correlating amplitude-peak velocity, that rapid eye movements in the awake kitten are saccades. From our results we conclude that the eye movements in the kitten and in the cat differ in many aspects and that the visual system is responsible for the development of the correct oculomotor behaviour.