Extent of compensation for variations in monkey saccadic eye movements

Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) is an involuntary eye movement induced by motion of a large proportion of the visual field. It consists of a “slow phase (SP)” with eye movements in the same direction as the movement of the pattern and a “fast phase (FP)” with saccadic eye movements in the opposite direction. Study of OKN can reveal valuable information in ophthalmology, neurology and psychology. However, the current commercially available high-resolution and research-grade eye tracker is usually expensive. Methods & Results: We developed a novel fast and effective system combined with a low-cost eye tracking device to accurately quantitatively measure OKN eye movement. Conclusions: The experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieves fast and promising results in comparisons with several traditional approaches.

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Vision as oculomotor reward: cognitive contributions to the dynamic control of saccadic eye movements

Cognitive Neurodynamics ◽

10.1007/s11571-020-09661-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Wolf ◽

Markus Lappe

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Visual Field ◽

Visual System ◽

Dynamic Control ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Saccade Target ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Foveal Vision ◽

Subsequent Behavior ◽

High Level

AbstractHumans and other primates are equipped with a foveated visual system. As a consequence, we reorient our fovea to objects and targets in the visual field that are conspicuous or that we consider relevant or worth looking at. These reorientations are achieved by means of saccadic eye movements. Where we saccade to depends on various low-level factors such as a targets’ luminance but also crucially on high-level factors like the expected reward or a targets’ relevance for perception and subsequent behavior. Here, we review recent findings how the control of saccadic eye movements is influenced by higher-level cognitive processes. We first describe the pathways by which cognitive contributions can influence the neural oculomotor circuit. Second, we summarize what saccade parameters reveal about cognitive mechanisms, particularly saccade latencies, saccade kinematics and changes in saccade gain. Finally, we review findings on what renders a saccade target valuable, as reflected in oculomotor behavior. We emphasize that foveal vision of the target after the saccade can constitute an internal reward for the visual system and that this is reflected in oculomotor dynamics that serve to quickly and accurately provide detailed foveal vision of relevant targets in the visual field.

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Impaired Inhibitory Control of Saccadic Eye Movements in Cervical Dystonia: An Eye‐Tracking Study

Movement Disorders ◽

10.1002/mds.28486 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Federico Carbone ◽

Philipp Ellmerer ◽

Marcel Ritter ◽

Sabine Spielberger ◽

Philipp Mahlknecht ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Cervical Dystonia ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements

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Effects of unilateral deactivations of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex on saccadic eye movements

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00626.2013 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 111 (4) ◽

pp. 787-803 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Michael J. Koval ◽

R. Matthew Hutchison ◽

Stephen G. Lomber ◽

Stefan Everling

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Single Neuron Recording

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) have both been implicated in the cognitive control of saccadic eye movements by single neuron recording studies in nonhuman primates and functional imaging studies in humans, but their relative roles remain unclear. Here, we reversibly deactivated either dlPFC or ACC subregions in macaque monkeys while the animals performed randomly interleaved pro- and antisaccades. In addition, we explored the whole-brain functional connectivity of these two regions by applying a seed-based resting-state functional MRI analysis in a separate cohort of monkeys. We found that unilateral dlPFC deactivation had stronger behavioral effects on saccades than unilateral ACC deactivation, and that the dlPFC displayed stronger functional connectivity with frontoparietal areas than the ACC. We suggest that the dlPFC plays a more prominent role in the preparation of pro- and antisaccades than the ACC.

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