The accommodative system of the eye adjusts the curvature of the crystalline eye lens, thereby changing the refractive power enabling the eye to focus a clear retinal image of objects at near or far distances. With the arrival of more accessible measuring techniques and the proliferation of a multi-disciplinary scientific approach, progress has recently accelerated in this area of visual neuroscience. It is becoming clear that the process of adjusting the focal power of the eye, to enable clear vision at near or far distance, gives rise to complex elaborations of nerve signals in central and peripheral sensorimotor circuits. When the force of contraction of the ciliary muscle reaches a critical threshold, a universal eye-head-neck-scapular motor programme responsible for posturing gaze is launched. Under these conditions, the activity of the trapezius muscle is raised above a level that is considered as the physiological rest. Simultaneous with the increases in musculoskeletal activation levels, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in visual cortex is raised above a level that occurs naturally during normal fully focused viewing conditions, whereas frontal systems specialized for visual search become down-regulated. The interpretation of the rCBF changes is that the brain imposes an enhanced analytic structure on the ascending sensory information during ongoing eye lens accommodation such that relatively more priority is given to sensory information in the central fovea. The implications of the newly discovered mechanism for gaze control are discussed within the realm of basic and applied ergonomic research with a specific emphasis on musculoskeletal disorders and visual ergonomics.