What is Donders' Law?

Donders' law states that for any one gaze direction, the eye always assumes the same unique orientation in 3 dimensions.

The orientation is always the same irrespective of where the eye came from.

For example the orientation of the eye when looking up and right is the same when the eye reached this position by first rotating right and then up or first up and then right.

This is a neural, not a mechanical, constraint.


Copywrite © 1996 TutisVilis and Douglas Tweed
Department of Physiology
University of Western Ontario
London Ontario Canada
Updated October 15, 1996

Comments welcome.Email to tvilis@physiology.uwo.ca