Retractor bulbi muscle responses to oculomotor nerve and nucleus stimulation in the cat.

This study demonstrates the presence of retractor bulbi motoneurons within the oculomotor nucleus which activate muscle units within all 4 slips of the cat retractor bulbi muscle. These muscle units are mechanically different and physiologically separate from retractor bulbi muscle units innervated by the abducens nerve. The refractor bulbi muscle, then, is innervated by two separate pools of motoneurons whose axons are carried in two different cranial nerves. These observations of mechanical properties of retractor bulbi muscle suggest that the oculomotor retractor bulbi motor units may be activated during patterned eye movements.