Using Eye Movements As An Experimental Probe Of Brain Function

This volume of Progress in Brain Research is based on the proceedings of a conference, "Using Eye Movements as an Experimental Probe of Brain Function," held at the Charing Cross Hospital Campus of Imperial College London, UK on 5th -6th December, 2007 to honor Professor Jean Büttner-Ennever. With 87 contributions from international experts – both basic scientists and clinicians – the volume provides many examples of how eye movements can be used to address a broad range of research questions. Section 1 focuses on extraocular muscle, highlighting new concepts of proprioceptive control that involve even the cerebral cortex. Section 2 comprises structural, physiological, pharmacological, and computational aspects of brainstem mechanisms, and illustrates implications for disorders as diverse as opsoclonus, and congenital scoliosis with gaze palsy. Section 3 addresses how the cerebellum transforms neural signals into motor commands, and how disease of such mechanisms may lead to ataxia and disorders such as oculopalatal tremor. Section 4 deals with sensory-motor processing of visual, vestibular, somatosensory, and auditory inputs, such as are required for navigation, and gait. Section 5 illustrates how eye movements, used in conjunction with single-unit electrophysiology, functional imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and lesion studies have illuminated cognitive processes, including memory, prediction, and even free will. Section 6 includes 18 papers dealing with disorders ranging from congenital to acquired forms of nystagmus, genetic and degenerative neurological disorders, and treatments for nystagmus and motion sickness. * Clinicians will find important new information on the substrate for spinocerebellar ataxia, late-onset Tay-Sachs disease, Huntington disease, and pulvinar lesions * Organizes multiple articles on such topics as proprioception, short and longer-term memory, and hereditary cerebellar ataxias for a more coherent presentation * Articles on anatomic tracers, functional imaging, and computational neuroscience are illustrated in color

Eye-movement recording has become the method of choice in a wide variety of disciplines investigating how the mind and brain work. This volume brings together recent, high-quality eye-movement research from many different disciplines and, in doing so, presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in eye-movement research. Sections include the history of eye-movement research, physiological and clinical studies of eye movements, transsaccadic integration, computational modelling of eye movements, reading, spoken language processing, attention and scene perception, and eye-movements in natural environments. Includes recent research from a variety of disciplines Divided into sections based on topic areas, with an overview chapter beginning each section Through the study of eye movements we can learn about the human mind, and eye movement recording has become the method of choice in many disciplines

This edited volume presents fundamentals as well as applications of oculomotor methods in industrial and clinical settings. The topical spectrum covers 1.) basics and background material, 2.) methods such as recording techniques, markov models, Lévy flights, pupillometry and many more, as well as 3.) a broad range of applications in clinical and industrial settings. The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

A collection of contemporary work in various areas of eye-movement research with an emphasis on physiological aspects is presented in this book. The contributions are divided into six sections: I. saccadic eye movements; II. smooth pursuit and motion perception; III. eye movements in pathology and clinical settings; IV. neurophysiology of eye movements; V. optokinetic nystagmus; and VI. methods. This volume provides updated information on the most recent research on eye movements carried out mainly in Europe.

The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of current research on cognitive and applied aspects of eye movements. The contents include peer-reviewed chapters based on a selection of papers presented at the 11th European Conference on Eye Movements (Turku, Finland 2001), supplemented by invited contributions. The ECEM conference series brings together researchers from various disciplines with an interest to use eye-tracking to study perceptual and higher order cognitive functions. The contents of the book faithfully reflect the scope and diversity of interest in eye-tracking as a fruitful tool both in basic and applied research. It consists of five sections: visual information processing and saccadic eye movements; empirical studies of reading and language production; computational models of eye movements in reading; eye-tracking as a tool to study human-computer interaction; and eye movement applications in media and communication research. Each section is concluded by a commentary chapter by one of the leading authorities in the field. These commentaries discuss and integrate the contributions in the section and provide an expert view on the most significant present and future developments in the respective areas. The book is a reference volume including a large body of new empirical work but also principal theoretical viewpoints of leading research groups in the field.

The recording and analysis of electrical brain activity associated with eye movements has a history of several decades. While the early attempts were primarily focused on uncovering the brain mechanisms of eye movements, more recent approaches use eye movements as markers of the ongoing brain activity to investigate perceptual and cognitive processes. This recent approach of segmenting brain activity based on eye movement behavior has several important advantages. First, the eye movement system is closely related to cognitive functions such as perception, attention and memory. This is not surprising since eye movements provide the easiest and the most accurate way to extract information from our visual environment and the eye movement system largely determines what information is selected for further processing. The eye movement-based segmentation offers a great way to study brain activity in relation to these processes. Second, on the methodological level, eye movements constitute a natural marker to segment the ongoing brain activity. This overcomes the problem of introducing artificial markers such as ones for stimulus presentation or response execution that are typical for a lab-based research. This opens possibilities to study brain activity during self-paced perceptual and cognitive behavior under naturalistic conditions such as free exploration of scenes. Third, by relating eye movement behavior to the ongoing brain activity it is possible to see how perceptual and cognitive processes unfold in time, being able to predict how brain activity eventually leads to behavior. This research topic illustrates advantages of the combined recording and analysis of eye movements and neural signals such as EEG, local field potentials and fMRI for investigation of the brain processes in humans and animals. The contributions include research papers, methodology papers and reviews demonstrating conceptual and methodological achievements in this rapidly developing field.

Originally published in 1983, this volume represents the edited proceedings of the first conference organized by the European Group for Eye Movement Research with the theme "Eye Movements: Current Research and Methodology". The conference was held at the Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland in 1981. The book is divided into four parts covering: Methods; Central and Peripheral Processing; Picture Viewing and Visual Tracking; and Cognitive Processes and Reading. Each part is introduced by one of the session chairpersons of the conference.

Originally published in 1981, this volume represents the edited proceedings of the third symposium on eye movements and behaviour sponsored by the US Army Human Engineering Laboratory. The conference, titled "The Last Whole Earth Eye Movement Conference" was held in Florida in February 1980. As the conference approached, seizure of the American hostages by the Iranian militants, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the uncertain economic outlook around the world made it appear as though the title was a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the meeting proved highly successful and people throughout the world seemed to be adapting to the stresses of international tension, making the possibility of subsequent meetings more likely. The present volume is intended to serve as a complementary text to the earlier texts Eye Movements and Psychological Processes (Monty & Senders, 1976) and Eye Movements and the Higher Psychological Functions (Senders, Fisher & Monty, 1978), rather than a revision and update of them.