IS OCULAR PROPRIOCEPTIVE SENSE CONCERNED IN VISION?

Abstract

In recent years, importance has been attributed to the part played by the proprioceptive sense of the extra-ocular muscles in orienting and modifying certain visual perceptions such as projection, stereopsis and the interpretation of motion on the retina. Disturbance of the proprioceptive sense has been cited as an etiologic factor in various motor anomalies, as nystagmus¹and certain squints.²The work of Sherrington²has been accepted and interpreted as proof of proprioceptive sense in extra-ocular muscles by Duane,³Duke-Elder,⁴Adler⁵and Byrne⁶in their textbooks and by Karrer and Stevens⁷and McLean⁸in recent articles. In contemporary English literature on the extrinsic muscles of the eye this point of view seems prevalent, overshadowing that of such old authorities as Helmholtz,⁹Tscherning¹⁰and Hering,¹¹who attributed no importance to the proprioceptive sense of the eye muscles in