Optokinetic memory in the crab, Carcinus

Abstract

Summary 1. A crab is held at the centre of an illuminated stationary striped drum or any visual field with strong contrasts. After a time all lights are turned off and the drum is moved in the dark. The light is restored when the drum is stationary in its new position. The animal responds by a movement of the eyes.

2. Stimuli of 0.5° over a dark period of 2 min. or 1° over 15 min. give a response. The response depends on the angle of the drum movement, and is slower in performance and less in total amount for longer periods of darkness.

3. On re-illumination the movement of the eye relative to the stationary drum is such that the visual field moves across the eye in the opposite direction to the eye's movement, but nevertheless the perception of small drum oscillations is not impaired.

4. When the visual feedback loop is opened by clamping the seeing eye and painting over the moving one, eye movements can be greater than drum movements, as in movement perception. Comparison of calculated with experimental closed-loop conditions shows that in the memory experiment there is no attenuation or amplification in the visual feedback loop.

5. Perception of very slow movements and stabilization of eye position could, but do not necessarily, depend on this accurate but short-lived directional memory.