Symmetry and self-organization of the oculomotor neural integrator

Modeling and experiment support the assertion that the oculomotor neural integrator works through positive feedback via reciprocal inhibition. Clinical studies reveal that the integrator is operational immediately after birth, suggesting that it develops prenatally. Using facts and computational techniques from dynamic systems theory, it can be shown that self-organization of the oculomotor neural integrator could occur through the construction during development of symmetrically connected clusters of neurons. This method is neurobiologically plausible and robust, and networks designed using it reproduce the dynamics observed for brainstem neurons that are part of the actual oculomotor neural integrator.