  Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) is an involuntary eye movement responsible for
stabilizing retinal images in the presence of relative motion between an
observer and the environment. Fully understanding the development of
optokinetic nystagmus requires a neurally plausible computational model that
accounts for the neural development and the behavior. To date, work in this
area has been limited. We propose a neurally plausible framework for the joint
development of disparity and motion tuning in the visual cortex, the
optokinetic and vergence eye movements. This framework models the joint
emergence of both perception and behavior, and accounts for the importance of
the development of normal vergence control and binocular vision in achieving
normal monocular OKN (mOKN) behaviors. Because the model includes behavior, we
can simulate the same perturbations as performed in past experiments, such as
artificially induced strabismus. The proposed model agrees both qualitatively
and quantitatively with a number of findings from the literature on both
binocular vision as well as the optokinetic reflex. Finally, our model also
makes quantitative predictions about the OKN behavior using the same methods
used to characterize the OKN in the experimental literature.
