title: Control and Functions of Fixational Eye Movements.
abstract: Humans and other species explore a visual scene by rapidly shifting their gaze 2-3 times every second. Although the eyes may appear immobile in the brief intervals in between saccades, microscopic (fixational) eye movements are always present, even when attending to a single point. These movements occur during the very periods in which visual information is acquired and processed and their functions have long been debated. Recent technical advances in controlling retinal stimulation during normal oculomotor activity have shed new light on the visual contributions of fixational eye movements and their degree of control. The emerging body of evidence, reviewed in this article, indicates that fixational eye movements are important components of the strategy by which the visual system processes fine spatial details, enabling both precise positioning of the stimulus on the retina and encoding of spatial information into the joint space-time domain.
authors: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215.
authors: Michele
authors: M
authors: Rucci
authors: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215.
authors: Martina
authors: M
authors: Poletti
mesh_terms: D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Ocular drift; ganglion cell; microsaccade; neural encoding; retina; saccade; visual acuity