Position dependency of rapidly induced saccade disconjugacy

We tested the ability of normal subjects to alter the conjugacy of their saccades in a position-specific manner. Five subjects dichoptically viewed a stereogram produced by two random-dot patterns. They immediately perceived a three-dimensional wedge with its apex closer to them. They were asked to saccade for 15 min back and forth between the apex and two lateral dots of the wedge. For fixation sequences between centre-right-centre, saccades immediately became larger in the right eye. For sequences between centre-left-centre, saccades immediately became larger in the left eye. For two subjects this non-monotonic position-specific disconjugacy compensated for the disparity of the stereogram almost perfectly. The disconjugacy persisted even under monocular viewing of one of the random-dot patterns. It diminished or disappeared immediately, however, when the random-dot pattern was shifted on the screen. We suggest the existence of a fast learning mechanism capable of producing position-specific disconjugacy by associating saccades with disparity. Such a mechanism would use a visual reference rather than the position of the eyes in the orbit.