Our Eyes do Not Always Go Where we Want Them to Go: Capture of the Eyes by New Objects

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 379-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Theeuwes ◽  
Arthur F. Kramer ◽  
Sowon Hahn ◽  
David E. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Parallel Programming ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Color Singleton ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Singleton Target

Observers make rapid eye movements to examine the world around them. Before an eye movement is made, attention is covertly shifted to the location of the object of interest. The eyes typically will land at the position at which attention is directed. Here we report that a goal-directed eye movement toward a uniquely colored object is disrupted by the appearance of a new but task-irrelevant object, unless subjects have a sufficient amount of time to focus their attention on the location of the target prior to the appearance of the new object. In many instances, the eyes started moving toward the new object before gaze started to shift to the color-singleton target. The eyes often landed for a very short period of time (25–150 ms) near the new object. The results suggest parallel programming of two saccades: one voluntary, goal-directed eye movement toward the color-singleton target and one stimulus-driven eye movement reflexively elicited by the appearance of the new object. Neuroanatomical structures responsible for parallel programming of saccades are discussed.

Quantitative Analysis of Abducens Neuron Discharge Dynamics During Saccadic and Slow Eye Movements

1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 2612-2632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre A. Sylvestre ◽  
Kathleen E. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Firing Rate ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Slow Phase ◽  
Vestibular Nystagmus ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Velocity

The mechanics of the eyeball and its surrounding tissues, which together form the oculomotor plant, have been shown to be the same for smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements. Hence it was postulated that similar signals would be carried by motoneurons during slow and rapid eye movements. In the present study, we directly addressed this proposal by determining which eye movement–based models best describe the discharge dynamics of primate abducens neurons during a variety of eye movement behaviors. We first characterized abducens neuron spike trains, as has been classically done, during fixation and sinusoidal smooth pursuit. We then systematically analyzed the discharge dynamics of abducens neurons during and following saccades, during step-ramp pursuit and during high velocity slow-phase vestibular nystagmus. We found that the commonly utilized first-order description of abducens neuron firing rates (FR = b + kE + rE˙, where FR is firing rate, E and E˙ are eye position and velocity, respectively, and b, k, and r are constants) provided an adequate model of neuronal activity during saccades, smooth pursuit, and slow phase vestibular nystagmus. However, the use of a second-order model, which included an exponentially decaying term or “slide” (FR = b + kE + rE˙ + uË − c[Formula: see text]), notably improved our ability to describe neuronal activity when the eye was moving and also enabled us to model abducens neuron discharges during the postsaccadic interval. We also found that, for a given model, a single set of parameters could not be used to describe neuronal firing rates during both slow and rapid eye movements. Specifically, the eye velocity and position coefficients ( r and k in the above models, respectively) consistently decreased as a function of the mean (and peak) eye velocity that was generated. In contrast, the bias ( b, firing rate when looking straight ahead) invariably increased with eye velocity. Although these trends are likely to reflect, in part, nonlinearities that are intrinsic to the extraocular muscles, we propose that these results can also be explained by considering the time-varying resistance to movement that is generated by the antagonist muscle. We conclude that to create realistic and meaningful models of the neural control of horizontal eye movements, it is essential to consider the activation of the antagonist, as well as agonist motoneuron pools.

Dodge-Ing the Issue: Dodge, Javal, Hering, and the Measurement of Saccades in Eye-Movement Research

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3470 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 793-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Wade ◽  
Benjamin W Tatler ◽  
Dieter Heller
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Type I ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Discontinuous Nature ◽  
Eye Movements During Reading

Dodge, in 1916, suggested that the French term ‘saccade’ should be used for describing the rapid movements of the eyes that occur while reading. Previously he had referred to these as type I movements. Javal had used the term ‘saccade’ in 1879, when describing experiments conducted in his laboratory by Lamare. Accordingly, Javal has been rightly credited with assigning the term to rapid eye movements. In English these rapid rotations had been called jerks, and they had been observed and measured before Lamare's studies of reading. Rapid sweeps of the eyes occur as one phase of nystagmus; they were observed by Wells in 1792 who used an afterimage technique, and they were illustrated by Crum Brown in 1878. Afterimages were used in nineteenth-century research on eye movements and eye position; they were also employed by Hering in 1879, to ascertain how the eyes moved during reading. In the previous year, Javal had employed afterimages in his investigations of reading, but this was to demonstrate that the eyes moved horizontally rather than vertically. Hering's and Lamare's auditory method established the discontinuous nature of eye movements during reading, and the photographic methods introduced by Dodge and others in the early twentieth century enabled their characteristics to be determined with greater accuracy.

Sensory Deprivation: Arousal and Rapid Eye Movement Correlates of Some Effects

1964 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ascanio M. Rossi ◽  
Allan Furhman ◽  
Philip Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Sensory Deprivation ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Retrospective Reports

Three Ss in sensory deprivation were continuously monitored by electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrooculographic (EOG) recordings. Retrospective reports of their mental states were given upon receipt of a signal. Ratings of report contents were compared with EEG determined levels of arousal and with the occurrence of rapid eye movements (REMs). Results indicate that the incidences of hallucinations and thought disorganization vary inversely with level of arousal, and hallucinations are not accompanied by REMs as occurs during dreaming.

Eye-head coordination in cats

1984 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1030-1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Guitton ◽  
R. M. Douglas ◽  
M. Volle
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Head Movement ◽  
Maximum Velocity ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Visual Axis ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Motor Strategy

Gaze is the position of the visual axis in space and is the sum of the eye movement relative to the head plus head movement relative to space. In monkeys, a gaze shift is programmed with a single saccade that will, by itself, take the eye to a target, irrespective of whether the head moves. If the head turns simultaneously, the saccade is correctly reduced in size (to prevent gaze overshoot) by the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR). Cats have an oculomotor range (OMR) of only about +/- 25 degrees, but their field of view extends to about +/- 70 degrees. The use of the monkey's motor strategy to acquire targets lying beyond +/- 25 degrees requires the programming of saccades that cannot be physically made. We have studied, in cats, rapid horizontal gaze shifts to visual targets within and beyond the OMR. Heads were either totally unrestrained or attached to an apparatus that permitted short unexpected perturbations of the head trajectory. Qualitatively, similar rapid gaze shifts of all sizes up to at least 70 degrees could be accomplished with the classic single-eye saccade and a saccade-like head movement. For gaze shifts greater than 30 degrees, this classic pattern frequently was not observed, and gaze shifts were accomplished with a series of rapid eye movements whose time separation decreased, frequently until they blended into each other, as head velocity increased. Between discrete rapid eye movements, gaze continued in constant velocity ramps, controlled by signals added to the VOR-induced compensatory phase that followed a saccade. When the head was braked just prior to its onset in a 10 degrees gaze shift, the eye attained the target. This motor strategy is the same as that reported for monkeys. However, for larger target eccentricities (e.g., 50 degrees), the gaze shift was interrupted by the brake and the average saccade amplitude was 12-15 degrees, well short of the target and the OMR. Gaze shifts were completed by vestibularly driven eye movements when the head was released. Braking the head during either quick phases driven by passive head displacements or visually triggered saccades resulted in an acceleration of the eye, thereby implying interaction between the VOR and these rapid-eye-movement signals. Head movements possessed a characteristic but task-dependent relationship between maximum velocity and amplitude. Head movements terminated with the head on target. The eye saccade usually lagged the head displacement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Rapid Eye Movement during Sleep Considered as Nystagmus

1986 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-598
Author(s):  
John Di Prete
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Paradoxical Sleep ◽  
Physiological Mechanism ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Supportive Evidence ◽  
Sleeping Position ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Sense

Based on supportive evidence, it is proposed in this paper that rapid eye movements during paradoxical sleep actually represent nystagmus, the latter due to the occurrence of conflicting perceptions of bodily position in space. During rapid eye movements in sleep, the brain's perception of bodily position in a dream is opposed to the sensory perception of the dreamer's sleeping position. The split in perception triggers nystagmus, a physiological mechanism known to accompany motion sickness and other waking forms of spatial sense distortion. Supportive evidence from studies on motion sickness, nystagmus, and sleep is presented. A number of experiments are suggested to lend validity to the hypothesis.

scholarly journals Abstracts of the 14th European Conference on Eye Movements 2007

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhold Kliegl ◽  
R. Engbert
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
European Conference ◽  
Visual Neuroscience ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Poster Presentations

The European Conference on Eye Movements, ECEM2007, is the 14th in a series of international scientific conferences dedicated to transdisciplinary research on eye movements. The series was initiated in 1981 by Rudolf Groner in Bern and is organized every second year by a group of European scientists active in eye movement research. This meeting in Potsdam is the third one in Germany, after Göttingen in 1987 and Ulm in 1997. The broad range of topics of the ECEM conferences attracts scientists from psychology, cognitive and visual neuroscience, computer science and related disciplines with interests from basic research to medical and applied aspects. Some 400 scientists from 27 countries, literally from around the world, have registered as participants of ECEM2007 and submitted over 300 oral and poster presentations.

scholarly journals Perceptual saccadic suppression starts in the retina

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Idrees ◽  
Matthias P. Baumann ◽  
Felix Franke ◽  
Thomas A. Münch ◽  
Ziad M. Hafed
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Saccadic Suppression ◽  
Rapid Eye Movements ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Perceptual Phenomenon

AbstractVisual sensitivity, probed through perceptual detectability of very brief visual stimuli, is strongly impaired around the time of rapid eye movements. This robust perceptual phenomenon, called saccadic suppression, is frequently attributed to active suppressive signals that are directly derived from eye movement commands. Here we show instead that visual-only mechanisms, activated by saccade-induced image shifts, can account for all perceptual properties of saccadic suppression that we have investigated. Such mechanisms start at, but are not necessarily exclusive to, the very first stage of visual processing in the brain, the retina. Critically, neural suppression originating in the retina outlasts perceptual suppression around the time of saccades, suggesting that extra-retinal movement-related signals, rather than causing suppression, may instead act to shorten it. Our results demonstrate a far-reaching contribution of visual processing mechanisms to perceptual saccadic suppression, starting in the retina, without the need to invoke explicit motor-based suppression commands.

scholarly journals Oculomotor capture by stimuli that signal the availability of reward

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 2316-2327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Failing ◽  
Tom Nissens ◽  
Daniel Pearson ◽  
Mike Le Pelley ◽  
Jan Theeuwes
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Early Selection ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Oculomotor Capture ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
High Reward ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
And Task

It is well known that eye movement patterns are influenced by both goal- and salience-driven factors. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that objects that are nonsalient and task irrelevant can still capture our eyes if moving our eyes to those objects has previously produced reward. Here we demonstrate that training such an association between eye movements to an object and delivery of reward is not needed. Instead, an object that merely signals the availability of reward captures the eyes even when it is physically nonsalient and never relevant for the task. Furthermore, we show that oculomotor capture by reward is more reliably observed in saccades with short latencies. We conclude that a stimulus signaling high reward has the ability to capture the eyes independently of bottom-up physical salience or top-down task relevance and that the effect of reward affects early selection processes.

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