Commutative eye rotations in congenital nystagmus

Listing's law can be achieved in two ways. First, neural activation of extraocular muscles could be encoded by the central nervous system. However, this requires complex calculations of the central nervous system. Secondly, it could be implemented by the anatomical structure of the ocular motor plant and then neural commands have to be encoded only in two dimensions. Simulations with a dynamical model show that commutative eye movements can be generated solely by the anatomical structure of the eye globe. A necessary condition then is that during eye rotations to a specific location the extraocular muscles are kept in the same plane. In patients with congenital nystagmus (CN), rotations of the eye do not obey Listing's law. Simulations with the dynamical model demonstrate that this could be explained an aberrant anatomical structure, resulting in cross-talk between the horizontal, vertical, and torsional planes.