OCULAR MOTILITY

AND BINOCULAR VISION

Combined vergences, sensory fusion

and the horopter
 Author
Thomas Salmon
Northeastern State University, USA

Peer Reviewer
Scott Steinman
Southern California College of Optometry, USA

Project Director, Editor-in-Chief

Luigi Bilotto
Brien Holden Vision Institute, Public Health Division, Durban, South Africa
University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Associate Editor
Pirindhavellie Govender
Brien Holden Vision Institute, Public Health Division, Durban, South Africa
University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) Durban, South Africa

Technical Editors
Vicky Larochelle, Raheema Ayob, Vicki Evans, Elaine Quinn, Kerryn Hart

Layout Editors
Rajni Chhabra, Prashant Kumar

Graphics
Shane Parker

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Review motor fusion & vergences
• Six different categories of vergence eye
movements:
1. Disparity vergence— stimulated by retinal
disparity
2. Accommodative vergence— stimulated by
accommodation
3. Tonic vergence— basal innervation of EOMs
in the absence of visual stimuli
Review motor fusion & vergences

4. Vergence adaptation— stimulated by

disparity vergence and accommodative
vergence; takes over for them with time
5. Proximal vergence— stimulated by
perception of object proximity
6. Voluntary vergence
Review motor fusion & vergences

• These mechanisms:
− Controlled by discrete centers in the brain
− Work together to support motor fusion
− Aim the eyes so images fall on
corresponding points
 Interrelation of the vergences

• Tonic vergence (TV):

− Bring the eyes from their anatomic position of
rest (about 17 prism diopters exo) to parallel or
close to parallel
• Proximal vergence (PX):
− Stimulates a large convergent movement while
fixating a near object, which brings the eyes
close enough for disparity vergence (DV) and
accommodative vergence (AC/A) to work
 Interrelation of the vergences

• Disparity vergence innervation (DVI) and

accommodative vergence innervations (AVI):
− Stimulate vergence adaptation (VA) if near
fixation is sustained, which takes over more
and more of the convergence response (CR)
 Interrelation of the vergences

• Feedback loop:
− Adjusts the need for disparity and
accommodative vergence according to change
in vergence adaptation
• Negative disparity vergence and negative reflex
accommodation:
− A slight amount is required to fixate a distant
object since the tonic posture of the eyes is
normally slightly esophoric
 Disparity vergence

Disparity vergence (or fusional convergence)

• Considered the primary mechanism used to fine-
tune fixation on the object of interest
− All the other vergences help with a more
gross alignment of the eyes
− Precise motor fusion is provided by disparity
vergence only
 Disparity vergence

Disparity vergence (or fusional convergence)

• Made up of two sub-components:
− Positive disparity vergence (disparity
convergence)
− Negative disparity vergence (disparity
divergence)
 Disparity vergence

Disparity vergence (or fusional convergence)

• Separate brain-stem cellular groups:
− Convergence cells innervate positive disparity
vergence
− Divergence cells innervate negative disparity
vergence
 Disparity vergence

Disparity vergence (or fusional convergence)

• Number of divergence cells is significantly less
than convergence cells
− Explain the lower amplitude and velocity of
divergence movements
• Both convergence and divergence is further
subdivided into components analogous to coarse
and fine sensory fusion
 Disparity vergence

• Disparity vergence subsystems:

− Coarse disparity vergence responds to large
targets and large retinal disparities
− Fine disparity vergence mechanism does
fine adjustments
• Negative feedback system allows fine disparity
vergence to precisely fixate the eyes and
complete motor fusion
 Disparity vergence

• Fixation disparity:
− A tiny residual misalignment of the visual axes
or a small residual disparity left at the
completion of fine disparity vergence
− Continues to stimulate the fine disparity
vergence mechanism
 Disparity vergence

• Fixation disparity is usually so small that the

image can still be fused binocularly
• Disparity vergence is not solely responsible for
motor fusion
− It has help from the other vergence
mechanisms
• Tonic
• Proximal
• Accommodative
 Disparity vergence

Vergence components at work when shifting fixation

from far to near
 Disparity vergence

• Amount of fixation disparity is determined by:

− Disparity vergence demand (how close the
object is) and
− Gain of the neurological signal
• Gain describes how responsive the fine disparity
vergence system is to retinal disparity
 Disparity vergence

• The relationship between the fixation disparity,

disparity vergence demand (DVD) and the gain
(G) are shown in the following equation:
 Disparity vergence

• Normal gain values are about 100

− With higher gain, fixation disparity is smaller
for a given distance
− For a fixed gain, fixation disparity will increase
for nearer fixation distances
 Disparity vergence
• A simple illustration:
Consider a person whose tonic vergence makes
the visual axes parallel, so the person is
orthophoric at distance
− If he has a PD of 64 mm, the convergence
demand to fixate at 40 cm is 15 prism diopters
− If proximal and accommodative convergence
together provide 10 prism diopters of
vergence, the remaining disparity vergence
demand is 5 prism diopters
 Disparity vergence

• Fixation disparity for different amounts of gain,

when the disparity vergence demand is 5 prism
diopters. All units are prism diopters

Disparity Vergence Demand Gain (G) Fixation Disparity (FD)

(DVD)

5 100 0.05

5 125 0.04

5 150 0.03
 Disparity vergence

Q What would happen if the mechanism perfectly

aligned the visual axes on the fixation point?
 Disparity vergence

A The vergence demand would become zero and

the stimulus to maintain the correct vergence
would be lost
• Without disparity vergence, the eyes would
quickly swing back toward their position of rest
• Disparity would then increase and they would
have to swing back toward fixation which would
be an unstable and inefficient way to maintain
motor fusion
 Disparity vergence
• Disparity vergence control mechanism directs the
innervational pattern until the desired vergence level
is reached
− Controller acting to null its own error signal via the
negative feedback process
• This null situation is similar to that of
accommodative system and would seem
appropriate, if the vergence level is at some rest
position
• Even if this point was actually reached, the system
would become unstable due to absence of input
 Disparity vergence

• It would fluctuate back and forth within a

disparity deadspace of a few minutes of arc,
depending on the stimulus configuration
• A deadspace is necessary to keep the natural
noise (output with no external inputs) from
constantly stimulating the system
 Disparity vergence

• Instead of going to the null point (the center of the

deadspace):
− The system goes to one side of the deadspace
and leaves a small directionally specific error to
generate the signal necessary for control
• Fixation disparity:
− Clinically, the amount of disparity left to provide
the necessary steady state or maintenance
innervation
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• Sensory fusion:
− Process used by the visual system to
combine the retinal images from the two eyes
into one unified percept
− Motor fusion is a prerequisite
• Motor fusion points the two eyes at the same
object allowing:
− Similar images falling on corresponding
locations in the two retinas
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• Father Franciscus Aguilonius (1613)
• Appreciated that the images projected into the
two eyes were slightly different
− By virtue of the difference between each eye’s
viewing angle
• Used this fact to develop an analysis of the
positions in space that would fall on
corresponding points in the two eyes
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• From the laws of visual direction:
− Objects in different locations in space fall on
different retinal locations
− Each different retinal location has a different
visual direction associated with it
− Each retinal point has its own oculocentric
visual direction or local sign
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• From Hering’s binocular laws of visual direction:
− For every visual line in one eye, there is a
corresponding visual line in the other eye that
has the same visual direction
− Every retinal point in one eye has a
corresponding point in the other eye’s retina
that has the same visual direction
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• Is the visual direction associated with a
corresponding point an oculocentric or egocentric
visual directions?
• The image of the fixated object falls on both foveas
• Another single point, located 42° to the left of
fixation, stimulates a pair of corresponding points on
− nasal side of the left retina and
− temporal side of the right retina
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• Similarly, a single point in space, located 21° to
the right of fixation, stimulates another pair of
corresponding points
• For every pair of corresponding points, you can
locate a single point in space that stimulates
them
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter

Corresponding points have the same oculocentric

visual directions
 Sensory fusion and
introduction to the horopter
• The points can be located in space that stimulate
corresponding points by finding the intersection of
corresponding visual lines
• This is easier to visualize and measure when the
eyes are fixating a near object
• If a large number of corresponding visual lines
from across the two retinas are connected, an arc
is formed known as the horopter
• The term ‘horopter’ was developed by Aguilonius
and means the “horizon of vision”
Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter

The horopter or ‘horizon of vision’

 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
• An object located on the horopter has the same
visual direction in each eye
− Its image falls on corresponding retinal points
• Corresponding retinal points have zero disparity
− Since they have the same oculocentric visual
directions
 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
• Definition of the horopter:
− The locus of points in space that produce zero
retinal disparity
• Horopter is an arc in the horizontal plane
− Since disparity arises because of the
horizontal displacement of the two eyes
 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
Aquilonius postulates:
• Horopter falls on a circle that includes the fixation
point and the nodal points of the two eyes
− When the eyes are fixating a distant object, the
circle is large
− When fixating a nearer object, the circle is
smaller
 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
• Each fixation distance has a horopter associated
with it
• Vieth in 1818 and then Müller in 1840 studied
the shape of the horopter
• The theoretical circle with the geometry
described above is known as the Vieth-Müller
horopter, or Vieth-Müller circle
 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
• For symmetric fixation in the midline:
− Horopter exists only in the horizontal plane and
in a vertical line that passes through the fixation
point
− All other points in space will stimulate disparate
retinal locations
 Characteristics of the
theoretical horopter
• With asymmetric fixation:
− Horopter becomes twisted into a complex curve
• The horizontal horopter is usually measured by
aligning vertical rods, like those in the Howard
Dolman apparatus
• Horizontal horopter is also called the longitudinal
horopter
− Because it uses vertical rods to measure the
horopter