We present a new hypothesis that the cerebellum plays a key role in actively
controlling the acquisition of sensory infonnation by the nervous
system. In this paper we explore this idea by examining the function of
a simple cerebellar-related behavior, the vestibula-ocular reflex or
VOR, in which eye movements are generated to minimize image slip
on the retina during rapid head movements. Considering this system
from the point of view of statistical estimation theory, our results suggest
that the transfer function of the VOR, often regarded as a static or
slowly modifiable feature of the system, should actually be continuously
and rapidly changed during head movements. We further suggest
that these changes are under the direct control of the cerebellar cortex
and propose experiments to test this hypothesis
