Locomotor efference copy signaling and gaze control: An evolutionary perspective

• Published in: Current opinion in neurobiology Vol. 82; p. 102761
• Main Authors: Lambert, François M., Beraneck, Mathieu, Straka, Hans, Simmers, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cognitive science; Efference copy; evolution; gaze; locomotion; Neuroscience; vertebrate; vestibular; vertebrate; evolution; gaze; vestibular; locomotion; Efference copy; efference copy
• ISSN: 0959-4388; 1873-6882
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2023.102761

Neural replicas of the spinal motor commands that drive locomotion have become increasingly recognized as an intrinsic neural mechanism for producing gaze-stabilizing eye movements that counteract the perturbing effects of self-generated head/body motion. By pre-empting reactive signaling by motion-detecting vestibular sensors, such locomotor efference copies (ECs) provide estimates of the sensory consequences of behavioral action. Initially demonstrated in amphibian larvae during spontaneous fictive swimming in deafferented in vitro preparations, direct evidence for a contribution of locomotor ECs to gaze stabilization now extends to the ancestral lamprey and to tetrapod adult frogs and mice. Supporting behavioral evidence also exists for other mammals, including humans, therefore further indicating the mechanism's conservation during vertebrate evolution. The relationship between feedforward ECs and vestibular sensory feedback in ocular movement control is variable, ranging from additive to the former supplanting the latter, depending on vestibular sensing ability, and the intensity and regularity of rhythmic locomotor movements. •Locomotor EC-driven eye movements is an evolutionary conserved mechanism.•EC signaling has adapted to the evolutionary increase in locomotor complexity.•The role of ECs also changed with the evolution of vestibular sensory coding.